Feature Channels: Trauma

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Researchers at the Rothman Institute at Jefferson have shown that patients who receive surgery less than 24 hours after a traumatic cervical spine injury suffer less neural tissue destruction and improved clinical outcomes. The results of their study, the Surgical Timing in Acute Spinal Cord Injury Study (STASCIS) are available in PLoS One.

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Children who experience mild traumatic brain injury may be more likely to show increases in symptoms over time that could impact quality of life, more so than children who experience an orthopedic injury. Injury severity could play a role.

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Aggressive treatment for severe traumatic brain injuries costs more than routine care, yet yields significantly better outcomes, improved quality of life, and lower long term care costs, according to a new study by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Mayo Clinic researchers this week will announce the use of the blood pressure drug prazosin as an effective treatment to curb post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-related nightmares.

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Children with mild traumatic brain injuries appear more likely to have persistent postconcussion symptoms, including cognitive complaints such as inattention and forgetfulness, which can affect quality of life, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

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A study recently published by the University of Kentucky's Scott Livingston shows that physiological problems stemming from a concussion may continue to present in the patient even after standard symptoms subside.

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(Editor's Note: March is National Brain Injury Awareness Month.) What if a computer chip in a football player's helmet could tell coaches on the sideline that he has suffered a concussion? That day may not be too far off.

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People who experience a TBI show a marked decline in the ability to make appropriate financial decisions in the immediate aftermath and a continued impairment on complex financial skills six months later, according to new research from UAB.

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Adolescents are more sensitive to the effects of a sport-related concussion than adults or children.

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Researchers have combined bioactive peptides to stimulate wound healing. The peptides act by stimulating the growth of new blood vessels and promoting re-growth of tissue. Further development of these peptides could lead to a treatment for chronic and acute wounds. The study was published in PLoS ONE.

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A new drug is showing promise in shielding against the harmful effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in rats, according to a study that was released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans April 21 to April 28, 2012.

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Fever control using external cooling in sedated patients with septic shock is safe and decreases vasopressor requirements and early mortality, according to a new study from researchers in France.

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According to the Centers for Disease Control, sports-related concussions are an epidemic in this country. With more than three million sports-related concussions happening every year, research shows the effects can be long-lasting, even leading to permanent brain damage and early onset of dementia. Dr. Howard Derman, director of the Methodist Concussion Center in Houston, shares some of the common misconceptions about the brain and the severity of head injuries.

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Though researchers are becoming increasingly aware of the long-term effects of head injury, few studies have looked at the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in all age groups, including males and females, taking into account both mild and serious events.

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San Diegans driving to Vegas, the Sierras or some parts of the central coast could find themselves without trauma care should an accident occur.

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Talking on a cell phone or texting while walking may seem natural and easy, but it could be dangerous and result in walking errors and interfere with memory recall. Researchers at Stony Brook University found this to be the case in a study of young people walking and using their cell phones. The study is reported in the online edition of Gait & Posture.

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A first-of-its-kind study suggests that emotional response after witnessing an unsettling picture or traumatic event is greatly reduced by staying awake afterward, and sleep strongly “protects” a negative emotional response. This could have provided survival value to our ancestors, the authors say.

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As the last U.S. troops return home from Iraq, new research lends timely insights into the rates and impact of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) among military personnel serving in Iraq/Afghanistan, according to a topical issue of The Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation (JHTR), the official journal of the Brain Injury Association of America. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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A Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine study includes some unexpected findings about the immune systems of smoke-inhalation patients.

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Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine is joining in a nationwide initiative to train medical students on the unique medical needs of veterans and their families.

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Acute kidney injury (AKI) has severe consequences, with a 25 to 80 percent risk of in-hospital death. Researchers have found a way to diagnose AKI using a urine test, enabling emergency departments to identify these high-risk patients when they first arrive at the hospital. The study will be published online on January 9, 2012, in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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Although more patients with abdominal gunshot and stab wounds can successfully forego emergency “exploratory” surgery and its potential complications, new Johns Hopkins research suggests that choosing the wrong patients for this “watchful waiting” approach substantially increases their risk of death from these injuries.

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The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine TREDS (Training, Research and Education for Driving Safety) program has been awarded a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety to continue their work on driving safety in older adults.

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More than 10 years after 9/11, when thousands of rescue and recovery workers descended on the area surrounding the World Trade Center in the wake of the terrorist attacks, a research team led by Benjamin J. Luft, M.D., the Edmund D. Pellegrino Professor of Medicine, and Medical Director of Stony Brook’s World Trade Center Health Program, and Evelyn Bromet, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, and Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook University School of Medicine, has published results of a study examining the relationship between the two signature health problems among WTC first responders—respiratory illness and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

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Despite similar traumatic exposures, peacekeepers and relief workers don't show the same mental health effects as combat veterans, reports a study in the December Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).

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High levels of tau protein in fluid bathing the brain are linked to poor recovery after head trauma, according to a study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Fondazione IRCCS Ca Granda-Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico in Milan, Italy.

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The activity and excitement of the holidays tend to make people less careful when they should be more cautious. In the United States, there are an estimated 47,000 fires every holiday season that claim more than 500 lives a year.

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Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a jelly-like material and wound treatment method that, in early experiments on skin damaged by severe burns, appeared to regenerate healthy, scar-free tissue.

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A man-made package filled with nature’s bone-building ingredients delivers the goods over time and space to heal serious bone injuries faster than products currently available, Cleveland researchers have found.

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Highlights: 1) Abrupt kidney injury can lead to numerous complications that affect individuals’ health and survival. 2) Soldiers’ kidneys are often at risk and can fail among those burned during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. 3) Burned military patients with kidney injury are more likely to die than those without kidney injury.

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Highlights: 1) Few patients with injured kidneys that do not get better see a kidney specialist within a year of the injury. 2) Without treatment, kidney injuries can lead to kidney disease and other complications that affect individuals’ health and survival. 3) Physicians should strive to identify and treat kidney injury patients who need care.

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Patients will have a 24-hour hospital stay instead of a weeklong stay, being able to go back to playing golf, for example, a few days later instead of six weeks later with conventional open heart surgery,

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Headaches more frequent in youth three months after mild traumatic head injuries compared to those with arm injuries.

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The study led by Dr. Charles Marmar, professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the NYU Langone Medical Center, is one of the largest to identify a possible method for predicting vulnerability to stress during and after a traumatic event.

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A Florida State University clinical psychologist has identified factors that could cause some women with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to have chronic, persistent symptoms while others recover naturally over time.

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Using reprogrammed cells and microthreads, scientists at WPI and CellThera open the door for a new clinical therapy to treat major muscle trauma.

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Using advanced imaging techniques and cognitive tests, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center, the University Hospital for Einstein, have shown that repeatedly heading a soccer ball increases the risk for brain injury.

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Thanksgiving Day is the top day for cooking injuries - three times more than a normall day - and more than 141 serious fires and hot-oil burns have been reported from the use of turkey fryers over the last decade. Patient story and Loyola medical experts share tips to have a safe holiday.

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The article authors Marvin Chum and Wai Pui Ng describe the neurosurgical, vascular, otolaryngological, and psychological injuries sustained by an 11-year-old boy who was attacked by a Siberian tiger housed at a private home.

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Sports medicine and management experts say solutions needed to keep non-health factors from hindering appropriate treatment

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Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are teaming up for a research project aimed at advancing the treatment of military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI).

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A study of burn patients has found that those who suffered the most severe smoke inhalation also had more inflammation and spent more time on ventilators and in intensive care.

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Low oxygen supply (hypoxia) to vulnerable brain tissue is a major contributor to the risk of death or major disability after severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), reports a study in the November issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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Researchers were surprised to find that in some cases, the protection afforded by “leatherhead" early 20th-century football helmets was often comparable to or better than that provided by 21st-century varsity helmets currently in use.

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Youth football helmets are currently designed to the same standards as adult helmets, even though little is known about how child football players impact their heads. This is the first study to investigate the head impact characteristics in youth football.

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Two University of Utah researchers are teaming up with the Department of Defense to investigate the long-term affects of Traumatic Brain Injury in U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Older patients who happened to have been taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs when admitted to the hospital with serious head injuries were 76 percent more likely to survive than those not taking the drugs, according to results of a Johns Hopkins study.

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New research based on post-hospital arrival data from U.S. trauma centers finds that even after adjusting for differences in injury severity, gun use, and other likely causes of race difference in death from assault, African-Americans have a significantly higher overall post-scene of injury mortality rate than whites.

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A Mississippi State University researcher in biomedical engineering examines through computer modeling and simulation how high-impact explosions, including IEDs, affect soldiers' legs. This researcher will present findings at a NATO conference on Tuesday.

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Prolonged exposure therapy, cognitive therapy, and delayed prolonged exposure therapy, appear to reduce posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in patients who have experienced a recent traumatic event, according to a report published Online First by Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.