Category Archives: Spinal Cord Injury Treatment

GREEN BAY, Wis. Brett Goode had quite an eventful week. Returning to the Green Bay Packers was only part of it. Last Monday morning, the veteran long snapper an unsigned free agent despite spending the past nine seasons with the Packers was still unemployed when his wife, Monica, went into labor with the couples second child. Shortly after daughter Blakely arrived, Goode was on a plane from his home in Arkansas for a tryout with the New York Jets, one of a number of NFL teams that had called expressing interest in him. Like, the baby was born and I left, Goode said Sunday, following his first practice with the Packers. My wife is a good wife. Goode said he had been monitoring the Packers special teams issues kicker Mason Crosby had missed six of 11 field-goal attempts during the teams annual Family Night practice on Aug. 5 and was still hoping for a call from his old team, as hed received at the end of training camp last year. Sure enough, the phone rang late in the week and by Saturday, Goode was on his way back to Green Bay, having signed to compete with rookie Derek Hart for … Continue reading →

If you go into my attic, you will find a pair of crutches. For years, they have been used on and off for every member of the family. A broken leg, a torn ACL, a bad ankle sprain, and painful tendonitis are but a few of the injuries in the Wichtowski household. It seemed that at least once a year, one of my kiddos had an injury, usually from a sports practice or game. As it turns out, our household is rather typical. Every year, more than 36 million children play an organized sport, and 2.6 million of those youngsters will visit the emergency department for a sport- or recreation-related injury. Injuries vary from run of the mill scrapes and bruises to serious brain and spinal cord injuries. Most, however, fall into the musculoskeletal category. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the most frequent types of sports injuries are sprains (injuries to ligaments connecting two or more bones), strains (injuries to muscles), and stress fractures (injuries to bones). Not all these injuries will show up on an X-ray but they do cause pain and discomfort. Many of these injuries will respond to the RICE treatment Rest, Ice, Compression and … Continue reading →

Cervical myelopathy is a condition caused due to compression of the spinal canal in the neck region. Or, in a layman's language, we may say it is a damage caused to the part of the spinal cord that lies in the neck. It often leads to cord dysfunction and affects patients across all age groups. There are many underlying causes for the condition, however among the common ones prevalent are due to spondylosis (called as spondylotic myelopathy) and rheumatoid arthritis.Usually cervical myelopathy shows no initial symptoms and even if it does they can be so subtle that the diagnosis may easily be missed or mislead. Also, many a times patients start experiencing neck pain only at the advanced stage which is what makes the diagnosis of the condition difficult. Other CausesApart from spondylosis and rheumatoid arthritis, cervical myelopathy may be caused due to numerous other reasons such as:*A slipped disc*Degenerated cervical discs*Tumors inside the spinal cord *Compressing on the spinal cord*Bone spurs*Fracture of the neck*Traumatic injury to the cervical spine*Autoimmune disease, such as multiple sclerosis, or neuromyelitis optica*Bone or back problems*Born with a narrow spinal canal*History of cancer that involves bonesSymptomsCommon symptoms of cervical myelopathy may depend on factors like … Continue reading →

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. (NVIV) today provided a general business update and reported financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2017. Mark Perrin, InVivos Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, said, In the second quarter, we continued to make significant progress at InVivo. During the quarter, we enrolled four more patients into INSPIRE, and we now have 16 patients in follow-up. One of these patients improved from complete AIS A SCI to motor incomplete AIS C SCI at the one-month visit. We also announced that two patients who had previously converted to AIS B had been assessed to have converted to AIS C at their 12- and 24-month visits, respectively. Of the seven total AIS grade conversions, four are AIS C conversions at this time, meaning these four patients have recovered both sensory and motor function. Given these AIS C conversions and an overall conversion rate of 54.5% (6/11) at the 6-month primary endpoint visit, we remain enthusiastic about the potential of establishing the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold as the foundation of a new standard of care for acute spinal cord injury. Last week, we announced that the most recent patient to enroll into the INSPIRE study passed away with … Continue reading →

Groups representing disabled veterans and medical researchers warned this week that legislation banning most medical experimentation on dogs at the Department of Veterans Affairs would deprive veterans of needed medical breakthroughs, and thus represents a dangerous policy change for America's war heroes. It's a tricky argument for the groups, in part because it pits two worthy and popular causes against each other: animal rights, and ensuring that injured U.S. soldiers get the best medical treatment possible. Last week, those seeking improved treatment for animals had their say. Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., proposed an amendment to a package of four spending bills for the next fiscal year, which included VA funding. Brat's amendment banned any VA funding for testing or other activities that bring certain levels of pain to dogs. The amendment passed overwhelmingly, in a voice vote, after a debate in which no one spoke against it. That easy vote took opponents of the language by surprise, but some have indicated they will work to stop or amend it. They are starting with the argument that the amendment discounts the wounded veterans who stand to benefit from research on animals. "When House members voted on July 26, 2017 to ban … Continue reading →

For a veteran facing a lifetime of paralysis after suffering a spinal cord injury, hope is often the last thing to die. Yet, the recently introduced House bill, H.R. 3197, threatens to crush what little hope to which I, and the approximately 60,000 veterans living with spinal cord injury, cling. The act proposes to reduce investment in medical research, and the reason is as simple as it is controversial: animal research. Introduced by Rep.Dave Brat (R-Va.), the Act follows reports of experimentation on dogs at the McGuire VA Medical Center in the congressmans home state. Purportedly disturbing reports revealed that animals were being given amphetamines and suffering heart attacks, among other research-based details that arent easily digestible by those outside of the scientific community. The mainstream gut reaction that followed these revelations was easy to predict. When contemplated in a vacuum, the thought of animals experiencing induced pain would bother any reasonable person. However, I do not enjoy the luxury of contemplating these thoughts in a vacuum. When House members voted on July 26, 2017 to ban all VA medical testing that causes pain to animals, specifically targeting VAs canine research program, it was the first step toward a complete … Continue reading →

There's nothing simple about repairing spinal cord injuries. But new research has pinned down how one of the most cutting edge techniques works, and in particular how the body can repair itself with a little prompting from surgeons. As well as giving experts more insight into existing treatments, it's hoped the study will lead to techniques for tackling other types of damage to the nervous system perhaps even in cases where the spinal cord itself is severed. The team from King's College London in the UK focussed on a recently developed method for reconnecting sensory neurons to the spinal cord after traumatic injuries, looking at how the repair happens on a cellular level, and the way in which small neural offshoots grow to reconnect broken circuits in the body. "The strategy of encouraging new growth from spinal neurons could potentially be of use in other injuries of the nervous system," says one of the researchers, Thomas Carlstedt. The spinal cord handles both motor neurons for muscle movement, and sensory neurons for pain, touch, and so on, enabling all the body's nerve cells to communicate with the brain. A new medical technique places torn roots deeper in the spinal cord. Credit: … Continue reading →

Kyle Farmer took a moment to savor the scene at Dodger Stadium late Sunday night, during the brief interlude between Justin Turner crossing home plate with the winning run and the entire Los Angeles roster charging from the dugout to tear the shirt off his back and douse him in Gatorade. He raised his arms in triumph and smiled, and the sliver of black ink on the inside of his left biceps cracked open a window to his heart. Farmer had just flashed back to his college days to summon the coolness under pressure to deliver in a tight spot. In his first major league at-bat, he stroked a 96 mph four-seamer from Albert Suarez for a two-run double in the 11th inning to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a 2-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants. The tattoo on Farmer's arm, which revealed the message "Second Chance" in a mix of Olde English caps and sans-serif font, is his personal tribute to Chance Veazey, a former University of Georgia teammate whose baseball career ended when he was paralyzed from the waist down in a scooter accident in 2009. Eight years later, multiple life paths and storylines -- all narrated … Continue reading →

Home Health News New surgery may offer treatment for spinal injuries The spinal cord makes up a key part of the bodys motor and nervous systems. It is what relays communications between neurons in our muscles and neurons in the brain, ultimately controlling muscle movements. It also delivers sensory information regarding pain, temperature, and touch between the brain and other body parts. This is why spinal cord injuries are so inhibiting. Where motor neurons connect with the spinal cord, they form what is known as the motor root (this is called the sensory root for sensory neurons), which is essentially a clump or knot of neurons surrounding the site of attachment. When traumatic injuries occur to the spine, these roots are often torn, causing the patient to lose neuron function in those areas. Scientists have spent years researching treatments for these injuries that may help patients recover some of the functions provided by the spinal cord. One new surgical technique, originating in the UK and Sweden, reconnects sensory neurons to the spinal cord in the damaged areas. New research from its developers has uncovered exactly how the surgery works at a cellular level. They hope that by furthering their understanding … Continue reading →

A year ago PixarBio reverse merged its way onto the public markets, promising to raise tens of millions in cash as it led the way on development of a pain therapy that could replace morphine. The company confidently predicted an approval and market launch in 2018, boasting of technology that came out of the lab of MIT professor Bob Langer. And its been downhill ever since. In a mid-June SEC filing, the biotech says it was forced to give up its leased property in Massachusetts, including its headquarters in Medford, laid off more than half of its staff as it bled cash and grappled with an SEC fraud investigation, denying any wrongdoing. Its staff has been reduced from 27 to 10 in the first 6 months of this year. In the meantime, its shares $PXRB an OTC stock are trading at around 29 cents. Frank Reynolds PixarBio, helmed by CEO Frank Reynolds, says it got into a scrap with their landlord on the Medford lease after a late payment. So now, in place of that monthly $23,341 rent payment, they are paying $3,003 for a new, smaller office in Salem, NH. Then theres the SEC probe: Pursuant to SEC subpoenas … Continue reading →