The conventional belief is that children who have suffered a traumatic brain injury are much more likely to bounce back from the injury because their brains are still developing and more ‘elastic’ than adult brains.  However, that might not be so true after all.  According to new research by Australian scientists, children who have suffered from a brain injury may suffer repercussions from the injury for years after.  In fact, some children may never completely recover.

The Australian researchers examined the intellectual abilities, social skills and behavioral skills of children after a brain injury. The children were monitored for a period of 10 years after they suffered head injuries.  The children had been injured in slip and fall accidents, bicycle accidents are auto accidents.

The researchers found that complete recovery could be expected in children who had suffered a mild brain injury.  However, in the case of children who had suffered severe brain injuries, recovery was much slower, and lifelong effects were common. Children with a severe brain injury were much more likely to have problems with thinking skills, and impaired IQ levels after the injury.

Overall, according to the researchers, children do recover better than adults do after a traumatic brain injury.  The younger the child is, the better the recovery patterns.  The site of the injury is also important in determining the speed of recovery.  When the injury is concentrated in an isolated site, the recovery is possibly better than when the entire brain is injured.

The researchers found that even among children who suffered a severe traumatic brain injury, the recovery depended on the environment.  Children who were exposed to rehabilitation therapy were much more likely to make substantial strides towards a complete recovery, compared to children who did not have such benefits.  This indicates to Orlando car accident lawyers the importance of continuing rehabilitation programs for children with a brain injury for long after.

New clinical trials that have just commenced at 5 hospitals in the U.K. will investigate the effect of the female sex hormone progesterone on persons with a traumatic brain injury.  The trials are part of an international study into the use of the female sex hormone in the treatment of patients who have suffered a brain injury in motorcycle accidents and other types of accidents.  Similar trials have been conducted in the United States too, and have found substantially higher healing rates among persons who were administered the hormone.

The researchers in this trial will use a synthetic version of the progesterone hormone called progestin.  One group of subjects in the study will be administered the hormones, while the other group will be given a placebo.  The researchers want to compare the healing rates between the two groups.

More than 1,200 people across the world are taking part in the international study called SyNAPSe, and results are not expected until at least 2-3 years.  The researchers believe that the progesterone hormone contains healing properties that protect the brain cells after injury.  This helps limit the extent of the injury, thereby accelerating the process of recovery.  Researchers say that they are being cautious about the results of the trial, but are optimistic.

If the trials are successful, then Los Angeles motorcycle accident lawyers believe this opens up a brand-new avenue for treatment of traumatic brain injury.  There have been no major advances in brain injury treatment, although there are a number of experimental studies in varying degrees of research, many of them being funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Persons who are involved in a motorcycle accident may be at an especially high risk of traumatic brain injury.  The risk of injury can be reduced, but not completely eliminated by wearing motorcycle helmets.

Treatment options for brain injury patients are extremely limited.  In most cases, all that doctors can do to increase a patient’s chances of recovery is to limit the severity of the injury by beginning treatment as quickly as possible.  For this, it is necessary that doctors diagnose the injury quickly.  That diagnosis may speed up in the near future.  The National Institutes of Health Clinical Center last week began using a new imaging device that includes whole body simultaneous positron emission topography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a single device.

The device is called a Biograph mMR, and it promises to offer a more complete picture of abnormal metabolic activity in a shorter period of time.  The center purchased the device through the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, a collaborative effort between the National Institutes of Health and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.  The Center for New Sciences and Regenerative Medicine Cabazon conducts research into TBI treatment at the Walter Reed National Navy Medical Center in Maryland.

According to officials at the National Institutes of Health, the new device combines the powerful diagnostic abilities of both MRI scans and PET scans.  The MRI scanner points doctors to existing abnormalities, while the PET scan informs doctors about the metabolic activity of that particular abnormality.

According to doctors, this will greatly enhance diagnoses times.  With quicker diagnosis will come better turnaround and faster treatment of patients.  With this device, a brain injury can be diagnosed in the earliest stages of the injury, before excessive bleeding causes long-term damage.  The National Institutes of Health believes the new device will quicken the diagnosis of brain injury not just among veterans, but also in the civilian population.

Traumatic brain injury is one of the most serious injuries occurring in motorcycle accidents.  A helmet can protect a motorcyclist to some degree, but every year, Los Angeles motorcycle accident lawyers find thousands of helmeted motorcyclists with severe brain injuries that result in long-term debilitation.  Quicker diagnosis of these injuries could mean a better chance for a full recovery.

It’s being hailed by Los Angeles spinal cord injury lawyers as a dramatic breakthrough in the field of spinal cord injury treatment.  A 25-year-old man who was left wheelchair-bound with a spinal cord injury after a car accident in 2006 has been able to stand on his own.

The man, Rob Summers, was injured one night in July 2006 when he was struck by a car that jumped the curb and hit him.  Summers suffered spinal cord injuries that left him paralyzed and unable to move his legs or trunk.  Soon he was at the TIRR Research Center in Worcester, where he was introduced to Susan Harkema, a director at the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center.

Summers along with five other patients was chosen to receive a nerve stimulation device.  The device had been originally approved by the Food and Drug Administration for pain relief.  The device was later adopted for use as a spinal cord injury aid.  The device was implanted in his spine.  The device is designed to send a light electrical current through 16 electrodes that are implanted in the spine.  The device does not make the muscles move.  What the device does is to stimulate the neurons in the spine, thereby allowing them to react to sensory information from the legs.

At a news conference, Summers was able to demonstrate the results – he can now stand up from his wheelchair on his own.  He cannot yet walk about, but the fact that a person with a massive spinal cord injury like his has been able to do something like this is remarkable.

California spinal cord injury lawyers are applauding an appeals court’s decision last week that allows federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

After close to a year of anxiety, an appeals court has held that federal funds can be used for stem cell research that  destroys embryos.  Such funding had been called into question by a federal judge’s ruling last year that federal government funds cannot be used in any research in which embryos are destroyed.

Embryonic stem cell research provides victims of spinal cord injury a tantalizing glimmer of hope for a complete cure.  However, progress in embryonic stem cell research has been hampered by the controversy that surrounds this body of research.  Last year, a federal judge ruled that federal funds cannot be used for any stem cell research that involves destroyed embryos, even if these embryos had already been destroyed prior to research.  Embryonic stem cell research depends heavily on federal funding, and the position of the federal judge dealt a severe blow to developments in this field.

Fortunately, the Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned that judge’s ruling.  The Circuit Court of Appeals has held that according to the National Institutes of Health, federal funds are only prohibited in research that involves the destruction of embryos.  Such funding is not prohibited in research which makes use of embryos that have been conceived through in vitro fertilization, unused, and whose donors have donated the embryos for research.

Hopefully, there’ll be no more obstacles blocking essential federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.  There are hundreds of thousands of victims of spinal cord injury in the United States who are desperately waiting for a cure for these injuries.  Those hopes had been left in limbo after the judge’s ruling last year.  Spinal cord injuries can leave victims with paralysis and severely restricted abilities to live a normal life.  Much hope, therefore, rests on any treatment that can be developed through the use of embryonic stem cells.

A new study indicates to California brain injury lawyers that the use of antidepressants, common after a brain injury because of the high risk of depression among these patients, may not only help treat these emotional problems, but also actually treat the brain injury itself.

Depression is a frequent side effect of a traumatic brain injury, and doctors have typically prescribed antidepressants to help patients with these symptoms.  However, this study shows that antidepressants can not only help treat symptoms of depression, but also help brain cells survive and thrive, which is critical for the treatment of brain injury.

In the study, whose results have been published in the Journal of Neurotrauma this month, researchers found that mice with brain injury showed substantially improved memory, and increased brain function after they were treated with antidepressants.  The researchers induced traumatic brain injury in the mice, and treated them with antidepressants.  They found that after about four weeks, the mice that had been treated with antidepressants showed 70% more numbers of brain cells than those mice that did not receive the antidepressant therapy.

Besides, the researchers also conducted an object recognition test to understand whether the antidepressants contributed to any enhanced brain functioning.  The mice were shown new objects, and the researchers analyzed how long the mice stared at the objects.  If the mice stared at a particular object for a long time, then it indicated enhanced memory, because of the novelty of the object.  The researchers found that the mice that were given the antidepressant therapy spent an average of about 15% more time looking at the new objects.  However, the researchers also found that the use of antidepressants didn’t seem to help much with mobility and motor functions.

More research is needed to confirm the benefits of antidepressant therapy on the treatment of TBI.  These initial findings look promising, and could possibly benefit patients with mild or moderate brain injury.

A group of German researchers has conducted a study, which shows that the anticancer drug Taxol may help treat spinal cord injury too. The study on rats was conducted by researchers at the Max Planck Institute of New Biology in Germany. Researchers found that Taxol, which is used widely to treat breast cancer, seems to encourage movement in rats with spinal cord injury. How it seems to do this is by generating the growth of axons in the rats.

Axons are long projections that are responsible for transmitting nerve cell impulses throughout the body. These nerve cell impulses are responsible for controlling movement. When there is an injury to the spinal cord, scar tissue forms around the site of the injury, impeding the reformation of the axons. However, the researchers found that in rats who were administered Taxol, the drug seemed to spur nerve regeneration around the scar tissue.

There are several ways in which the drug seems to encourage nerve reformation.   It limits the amount of scarring that takes place around the injury site. Scarring can prevent the regrowth of the axons. Besides, it also helps loosen the microtubules, tiny protein structures that are found in the spine. When these microtubules are loosened, there is room for the axons to grow.

The researchers found that the animals could still move even after a spinal cord injury. However, their movement and coordination increased dramatically after they were injected with the drug. The drug was administered at the site of spinal cord injury for a period of two weeks.

What’s really encouraging about the study to California spinal cord injury lawyers is that Taxol is an approved drug. This drug has already been in the market for over 20 years, and has been used with great success to treat cancer.

Most Jennifer Grey fans, who applauded the star’s win on the season finale of Dancing with the Stars, are aware of her long and painful battle with spinal injury. It has probably made her win even more encouraging to victims and survivors of spinal cord injury.

Grey was involved in a horrific accident back in the 80s. She sustained serious injuries, including a spinal cord injury that left her in severe pain. In an interview she gave to ABC News earlier this year, Grey graphically described her injuries.  The ligaments were torn from the back of her neck, and she suffered from severely debilitating headaches and shoulder pain for months afterward.

Grey had lived with the pain for more than 20 years, when new x-rays and tests found that the spinal cord injury had not yet gone away. In fact, a test that she did just before she appeared on Dancing with the Stars found that she was at a serious risk of being paralyzed. A small fall during dance practice or other accident, could have placed her at serious risk of being permanently and completely paralyzed.

However, several surgeries later and a titanium plate screwed into her spine, Grey was able to dance away into Dancing with the Stars, and win the crown.

It’s a sobering reminder about the long term nature of spinal cord injuries, and that they can result in limitations on a person’s activities for years, and even decades, after the injury occurs. It is also the reason why a California spinal cord injury lawyer must take into consideration all future medical complications while deciding on accident compensation.

TBI or Traumatic Brain Injury is a term commonly used when an individual receives a head injury.  But, in reality, what injury to the brain would not be considered traumatic.  The scary truth about brain injuries is that many are not detected right away and some go years before the cause and effect are put together.

Brain injuries don’t present like typical injuries.  If a leg is broken or a tendon is torn it is very easy to prove.  But what if the brain is damaged in a car accident?  How do we know what affect it has on the individual?

Some common impairments from a TBI are memory loss, depression and personality changes.  These conditions may be hard to identify.  For example, if someone was always in a good mood and frequently had a smile on their face, it may be hard for a doctor to notice a person who suddenly seemed indifferent.

Depression is a very common disability today.  How is a doctor, who has no prior knowledge of the patient, able to determine the severity of the brain damage that the accident caused.  Even harder to identify is memory loss.  Though there are tests that physicians and neuropsychologists can run, it is difficult to determine what level of memory the victim had prior to the injury.

These cases are very difficult to prove and they require a special skill set and level of experience.  The amount of time, medical knowledge and tenacity it takes to try a brain injury case is immense.   A TBI case can take months and cost thousands of dollars to hire the most knowledgeable experts and medical professionals to describe the injuries to a jury.   It is extremely important that you hire a personal injury attorney who is qualified to take your case to a jury trial.  Failure to do so could cause you irreparable damage.

If you or someone you love has suffered a brain injury make sure you do the research to find an attorney who can handle your case.  Whether they have an obvious impairment like paraplegia or quadriplegia or a harder to diagnose TBI, the firm you hire needs to be experienced, financially ready and must care about you as much as you do.