Category Archives: Spinal Cord Injury Treatment

Updated: 09/25/2014 6:24 PM Created: 09/25/2014 6:18 PM WDIO.com Thursday was Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Day in Duluth. The goal of the day is to draw awareness to spinal cord injuries, how to prevent them, and the treatment options. Duluth Mayor Don Ness declared the day for the second year in a row at Essentia Health on Thursday. In 2013, he was the first mayor in Minnesota to officially recognize September as Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month. "Really appreciate the efforts that have been undertaken in recent years to raise awareness, to bring this issue to the forefront, to engage in a community conversation," Ness said on Thursday. "Both on the prevention side as well as on the care side. They're both equally important, and we can make a lot of progress by bringing this sort of awareness." There are currently more than 1.2 million people in the U.S. living with a spinal cord injury. See the original post: Ness Declares Thursday Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Day in Duluth … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise An anti-inflammatory treatment, studied in the labs of regenerative medicine specialists and trauma surgeons, may prevent whats become one of the war-defining injuries for todays troops. Those burned by high-velocity explosive devices are at-risk for heterotopic ossification(HO), in which bone develops in places it shouldnt be, outside the skeleton, in joints, muscles and tendons. The painful condition can make it difficult to move and function and commonly affects patients who suffer burns, automobile accidents, orthopedic surgery and blast injuries and other combat wounds. Research led by the University of Michigan Health System sheds light on how and why HO develops and reveals a potential method to interrupt the cell signaling that leads to abnormal bone growth. Using tissue from burn patients and a mouse model of trauma-induced HO, researchers analyzed the body's response to burn injury. They confirmed the link between burn injury and activity of ATP, a primary energy source for cells that, when elevated, can make reactions normally impossible in biological conditions, possible such as ectopic, or abnormal, bone. By using an apyrase, a compound capable of breaking down ATP, researchers were able to reduce heterotopic ossification, according to study … Continue reading →

After their lives were forever changed by unthinkable tragedy, three courageous kids are inspiring everyone they meet. See why Memorial Hermann logo. (PRNewsFoto/Memorial Hermann) HOUSTON, Sept. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- In observance of National Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month, Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital and TIRR Memorial Hermann are doing their part to raise awareness of spinal cord-related injuries and prevention, as well as provide clinical care, support, and stories of empowerment to some of the 200,000 individuals in the United States who are living with spinal cord injuries. According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, one person in the U.S. becomes paralyzed every 48 seconds. In July 2011, two of those individuals were brothers Peter and Aaron Berry. Their family was traveling home from a summer vacation in Colorado when their vehicle was struck head-on by aSUV that veered into their lane. Tragically, the siblings lost their parents in the accident. Peter and Aaron, who were 9 and 8 years old at the time, sustained serious spinal cord injuries that paralyzed them from the waist down. Miraculously their younger sister, Willa, was mostly unharmed. After life-saving surgery at a West Texas hospital, Peter and Aaron were transported by Memorial … Continue reading →

Get Breaking News First Receive News, Politics, and Entertainment Headlines Each Morning. MARATHON (CBSMiami/AP) A loggerhead sea turtle recovering its strength from a possible boat injury is leaving its Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital after more than a year for its new permanent home. Hospital staffers are making the final preparations Wednesday for the turtles 2,500-mile journey to San Diegos The Living Coast Discovery Center. Staff at the Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Fla., scrub and wash Sapphire. (Source: Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau/HO) The 129-pound subadult female named Sapphire cannot be released into the wild because she cant submerge without weights attached to her shell. As she grows, the weights will fall off and new ones must be attached. She has bubble butt syndrome, said Turtle Hospital Manager Bette Zirkelbach. She is unable to evacuate air from her lungs due to a spinal cord injury, so unfortunately for Sapphire, she is non-releasable. Because of a boat strike injury, Sapphire cannot submerge without weights affixed to its carapace. (Source: Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau/HO) Sapphire was first rescued in February 2010 with a wound that came from a boat strike, Zirkelbach said. The turtle spent 45 days in treatment and … Continue reading →

For an agency that has been under intense fire for months, the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals are a welcome relief. The Department of Veterans Affairs had two winners of the awards, better known as Sammies, which are among the most prestigious given to federal employees. At a luncheon and an evening banquet on Monday, the Partnership for Public Service, the good-government group that sponsors the awards, paid tribute to all the winners and, by extension, the federal workforce they represent. The Sammies focus not on whats wrong, but focus on whats right, said Max Stier, president and chief executive of the Partnership. We will have a better government if we pay more attention to that. Its been hard to pay attention lately to the many things that are right about VA when news reports, inspector generals audits and congressional hearings understandably and correctly point to serious things that have gone wrong. That makes it all the more refreshing to see that the cover-ups of long VA wait times, the bogus scheduling and the retaliation against whistleblowers have not diminished the enthusiasm of William A. Bauman and Ann M. Spungen. They are the director and associate director of … Continue reading →

For an agency that has been under intense fire for months, the Samuel J. HeymanService to America Medals are a welcome relief. The Department of Veterans Affairs had two winners of the awards, better known as Sammies, which are among the most prestigious given to federal employees. At a luncheon and an evening banquet on Monday, the Partnership for Public Service, the good-government group that sponsors the awards, paid tribute to all the winners and, by extension, the federal workforce they represent. The Sammies focus not on whats wrong, but focus on whats right, said Max Stier, president and chief executive of the Partnership. We will have a better government if we pay more attention to that. Its been hard to pay attention to the many things that are right about the VA lately, when news reports, inspector generals audits and congressional hearings understandably and correctly point to serious things that have gone wrong. That makes it all the more refreshing to see that the cover-ups of long VA wait times, the bogus scheduling and the retaliation against whistleblowers have not diminished the enthusiasmWilliam A. Bauman and Ann M. Spungen, director and associate director of rehabilitation research and development at … Continue reading →

by Leigh Dayton UTS researchers are experimenting with spinal chord tissue (Medical Xpress)It all started at a symposium five years ago. Catherine Gorrie, an expert in spinal cord injury, was listening to a presentation about the differences between the developing brains of children and the mature ones of adults when she had an "aah-haa" moment. "I began to wonder if there is something in the spines of children that could be manipulated for repair," says Dr Gorrie, a neuroscientist at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). It made sense. Dr Gorrie already knew that the more adaptable, or "plastic", spinal cords of infants responded more efficiently to injury than did those of adults. If she could tease out the factors that encouraged generic cells, so-called stem cells, in the spines of newborns to become new nerve cells, neurones, Dr Gorrie reasoned that it should be possible to mimic the process and help repair spinal cord injuries in people of all ages. That would be incredibly important because, to date, there is no cure for spinal cord injury and no proven drug treatment. "The most effective treatments available involve the surgical stabilisation of the spinal column and extensive physical therapy to … Continue reading →

TAMPA Troy Webb rolled his wheelchair back from a wall of screens showing the busy hallways of the James A. Haley VA Medical Center. He can see into a million square feet of the center through more than 100 cameras from his work space, a room the size of an average bedroom. He picked up a ringing phone. A Mercedes was involved in an accident in the parking garage. It was turning out to be a quiet morning, but more than 10,000 people would filter through the center by the end of the day. "It will be just like this and then someone starts yelling; someone hits the panic alarm and it goes crazy," Webb said. The Veterans Affairs police officers flow through the room regularly, and sometimes use an evidence locker and a small holding cell to control suspects. Webb, 37, is one of 280 participants in a national five-year program that started in 2010 to help veterans with spinal cord injuries get jobs. In June, he was hired as a dispatcher for the medical center's police, his first job in 15 years. He says it gives him a sense of purpose and structure to his day. "There's a … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 15-Sep-2014 Contact: Meng Zhao eic@nrren.org 86-138-049-98773 Neural Regeneration Research There is currently no standard pharmacological treatment for spinal cord injury. Here, Dr. Florencia Labombarda, who comes from Buenos Aires University, Argentina suggests that progesterone, a steroid hormone, may be a promising therapeutical candidate as it is already for traumatic brain injury, where it has reached phase II clinical trials. We rely on previous works showing anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective and promyelinating roles for progesterone after spinal cord injury and in our recent paper, in which we demonstrate that progesterone diminishes lesion, preserves white matter integrity and improves locomotor recovery in a clinically relevant model of spinal cord lesion.This is sure to be an exciting area of research in myelination regenerative therapy. The relevant study has been published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 15, 2014). ### Article "Give progesterone a chance " by Florencia Labombarda1,2, Daniel Garcia-Ovejero3 (1 Laboratory of Neuroendocrine Biochemistry, Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine CONICET, Vuelta de Obligado 2490, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 2 Departament of Human Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Buenos Aires University, Paraguay 2155, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 3 Neuroinflammation Laboratory, National Hospital For Paraplegics, (SESCAM), Toledo, Spain) Labombarda F, Garcia-Ovejero D. Give … Continue reading →

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) September 16, 2014 According to arecent article from the New York Times, NFL player David Wilson has retired after aggravating a neck injury he sustained in January. He initially had a herniated disc, and was then discovered to have spinal stenosis as well, which is a narrowing of the spinal canal that affects many adults and can lead to symptoms such as back or neck pain. Wilson had been hopeful that he could play again after surgery to repair the disc, but recently his doctors said otherwise. Leading spine surgeon Dr. Todd Gravori of ProMed SPINE comments on his condition and the importance of being aware of the risks associated with spinal injuries. Spinal stenosis can be present from birth, or it can develop from a number of conditions including trauma to the spine andherniated discs, explained Dr. Gravori. When it occurs in the neck, as with David Wilson, it can lead to neurological problems as well as pain and numbness in the extremities. Neurological problems associated with spinal stenosis include loss of sensation and bowel function, and even paralysis if aggravated or left untreated. Spinal stenosis does not always have to mean the end of … Continue reading →