Category Archives: Spinal Cord Injury Treatment

By the numbers Here's a look at spinal cord injuries by the numbers. 87.7: The number of traumatic spinal cord injuries per million Americans age 65 or older in 2009. That's an increase over the 2007 rate of 79.4 incidents per million. 49.9: The number of traumatic spinal cord injuries per million Americans ages 18-64 in 2009. This is a decrease from the 2007 rate of 52.3 incidents per million. 41.5: The percentage of traumatic spinal cord injuries from 2007 to 2009 that were caused by falls. Motor vehicle accidents were next, causing 35.5 percent of spinal injuries. $1.6 billion: The estimated total cost of emergency room treatment to all patients with traumatic spinal cord injury from 2007 to 2009, the Johns Hopkins researchers reported. The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center said individual costs of care and rehabilitation can range from $1 million to $5 million over a patient's lifetime, depending on the person's age and injury. The number of serious spinal cord injuries in the United States is rising, and it's not for the reason you may think. Falls, especially among older Americans, now surpass car accidents as the leading cause of spinal cord injuries, according to new … Continue reading →

The Associated Press In this Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014, photo, a Pakistani nurse, right, helps a child to walk in a corridor, part of the patient daily treatment, while children, left, who live at St. Josephs Hospice, chat in a ward of the hospice, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Mohammed Aqeel spent weeks at home in Pakistan waiting for death after suffering a debilitating spinal cord injury in a car crash before friends suggested he come to St. Josephs Hospice on the outskirts of the capital, Islamabad. Now 13 years later, his life and those of some 40 others who live on its grounds might be changed forever as this hospital of last resort faces closure over its rising debts. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen) By MUNIR AHMED/Associated Press/February 24, 2014 RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (AP) Mohammed Aqeel spent weeks at home in Pakistan waiting for death after suffering a debilitating spinal cord injury in a car crash before friends suggested he come to St. Josephs Hospice on the outskirts of the capital, Islamabad. Now 13 years later, his life and those of some 40 others who live on its grounds might be changed forever as this hospital of last resort faces closure over its rising … Continue reading →

Current ratings for: Monkey controls limb movements of 'avatar' using its mind Public / Patient: 5 1 rating Health Professionals: 0 0 ratings In the movie Avatar, humans operate the bodies of a human-hybrid species, called Na'vi, with their minds. Now, researchers from Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, have carried out a similar technique in monkeys - using neural devices that allowed an alert monkey to control the mind of one that was temporarily paralyzed. The research team, including Ziv Williams of the Department of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School, says the findings provide proof of concept that such strategies could be used in the rehabilitation of patients who are paralyzed. The research was recently published in the journal Nature Communications. According to the investigators, previous research has demonstrated that neurons in many parts of the brain are able to control external devices, such as a cursor on a computer screen. This direct communication is known as brain-machine interface (BMI). The researchers say recent studies have even shown that using BMIs could potentially control robotic limbs. The rest is here: Monkey controls limb movements of 'avatar' using its mind … Continue reading →

Scientists have successfully used computer chips to link two monkeys together, allowing one monkey's brain to control the other's body movement. Researchers say they hope their work - partly inspired by Hollywood blockbuster Avatar - will lead to the development of implants for patients who have nerve or spinal cord paralysis. Harvard neurosurgeon Ziv Williams, who co-authored the study published in the journal Nature Communications, says the paper aimed to find possible ways to treat people with cervical spinal cord injuries and are quadriplegic or have had brain stem strokes. "What we basically did was create a functional cortical to spinal bypass where we're able to record neural signals in the brain, extract information about what the monkey is intending on doing and then basically stimulating the spinal cord to produce movements in their paralysed limb to those same intended target locations," Dr Williams said. "For example, if the monkey is intending on moving upwards, we would select specific electrode contacts in the spinal cord to stimulate a movement that reaches that exact same target location. "In some cases actually the first monkey just needed to think about what they wanted to do and then the other monkey would make … Continue reading →

VLADIVOSTOK, February 16 (RIA Novosti) A tiger believed to have sustained a spinal cord injury when hunting a boar has died in Russias Far East, a spokesman for the tiger special inspection said Sunday. The big cat, nicknamed Amur, was found crawling across the taiga in the Amur Region in late January. The tiger was then sent for a medical examination to a local tuberculosis dispensary which has a scanner big enough to support his weight. Unfortunately, on Sunday night the tiger who we all had tried to save died despite all the efforts of the veterinarians, said the spokesman for the tiger inspection, a special department of the Ministry of Natural Resources. Last week, the tiger was taken to a safari park in the Primorye Territory. The animal was later sent to a circus in Vladivostok for a treatment after it underwent a second scanning. However, the tigers condition did not improve. The Amur Region administration named neurosurgery as a possible treatment for the tiger. Eight foreign veterinarians and several Russian specialists said the tiger cannot be healed and should be put to sleep to put it out of its suffering, as it is likely in considerable pain, Amurpravda.ru … Continue reading →

SAINT JOHN, N.B. Call it a gift of love from students and staff with NBCC Saint Johns Allied Health Education Centre. This morning, the program fundraised and donated a cheque for over $11,000 to the head of the Saint John Regional Hospitals Stem Cell Therapy Transplantation program. Doctor Terrance Comeau believes its important to fund stem cell research, not just because its used to fight cancer, but for the promise it shows to treat other health issues. Hopefully the next thing will be to embark on regenerative medicine where we can use stem cells to treat people who have had a severe heart damage from a heart attack or spinal cord injury or have suffered from a large stroke. Larger centres around the world are working on that now. Its in its infancy stage. Comeau adds the money will also go towards an initiative to make stem cell treatments an outpatient procedure. Read more from the original source: NBCC fundraiser stems hope for treatment development at Saint John Regional Hospital … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 4-Feb-2014 Contact: Sam Wong sam.wong@imperial.ac.uk 44-207-594-2198 Imperial College London A new drug treatment has been found to be effective against chronic pain caused by nerve damage, also known as neuropathic pain, in patients who have had shingles. The researchers hope that the drug might also be effective against other causes of chronic neuropathic pain, such as diabetes, HIV, nerve injury and cancer chemotherapy, as it targets a mechanism that is not targeted by any existing therapies and has fewer side effects. Drugs available now have limited success at treating neuropathic pain and often have unpleasant or disabling side effects. It is estimated that around 190,000 people in the UK get shingles every year, most of them aged over 50. It is caused when a dormant viral infection of a nerve is reactivated, resulting in a painful rash. In most cases, the shingles rash lasts a few weeks, but in some cases the permanent nerve damage caused by the virus results in a chronic neuropathic pain called post-herpetic neuralgia. Around one in 10 people with shingles experiences post-herpetic neuralgia and, once established, it usually causes life-long suffering. In a study involving 183 patients with post-herpetic neuralgia in six … Continue reading →

Durham, NC (PRWEB) February 03, 2014 Previous studies have shown that multiple stem cell implantations might assist adults suffering from complete spinal cord injuries (SCI). Now a groundbreaking study released today in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine shows for the first time that children with SCI might benefit, too. Marcin Majka, Ph.D., and Danuta Jarocha, Ph.D., led the study at Jagiellonian University College of Medicine in Krakow, Poland. "Although it was conducted on a small number of patients carrying a different injury level and type, preliminary results demonstrate the possibility of attaining neurological, motor and sensation and quality-of-life improvement in children with a chronic complete spinal cord injury through multiple bone marrow derived cell (BMNC) implantations. Intravenous implantations of these cells seem to prevent and/or help the healing of pressure ulcers," Dr. Majka said. The study involved five children, ranging in age from 3 to 7, all of whom were patients at University Childrens Hospital in Krakow. Each had suffered a spinal cord injury at least six months prior to the start of the stem cell program and was showing no signs of improvement from standard treatments. The patients collectively underwent 19 implantation procedures with BM-derived cells, with every treatment cycle … Continue reading →

Hepatitis C treatment isn't pretty, but the dark days of weekly injections, rough side effects and no guarantee of full recovery from the liver-damaging disease may soon be over, researchers report. Two studies, both published in the Jan. 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, involved giving various combinations of antiviral pill cocktails to patients with hepatitis C. Some had failed to respond to standard treatments, and some had not received treatment yet. Yet, the cocktails cleared the virus in both studies for between 93 percent and 98 percent of the patients. These cocktails are game-changers for the illness, said Andrew Muir, director of gastroenterology and hepatology research at the Duke Clinical Research Institute. "This has made me change the way I'm talking with patients. These regimens are essentially going to cure everybody," said Muir, who has conducted related research but did not participate in these studies. "I had a patient in my office this morning who said, 'If I get cured,' and I said to him, 'When you get cured.'" Traumatic spinal cord injuries The number of serious traumatic spinal cord injuries is on the rise in the United States, and the leading cause no longer appears … Continue reading →

Before it happened, Romulo Romy Camargo spent his days and nights loaded down with a hundred pounds of body armor, weapons and ammo, slogging through steamy South American jungles and driving through dusty Afghan valleys. As a chief warrant officer for the Green Berets in 7th Special Forces Group, Camargo helped train Colombian troops to fight drug traffickers and survived deadly firefights, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and roadside bombs in Afghanistan. Then came the shot that did not miss. I got hit in the back of the neck, says Camargo, 38, sitting in a motorized wheelchair strapped into the passenger side of a specially equipped van heading to Orlando, where he is fighting a new battle, against the injury that has left him paralyzed from the shoulders down and in need of breathing assistance since being hit by a snipers bullet on Sept. 16, 2008. For the past 18 months, that battle has meant four-hour roundtrips from his New Tampa home twice a week for three hours of intensive therapy at Project Walk Orlando, a spinal cord injury rehabilitation center. But while the sessions are productive, giving Camargo hope, helping him restore some movement and maintaining the health of the rest … Continue reading →