Brain Injury Lawyer - New York

Brain Tissue Oxygen Monitoring

An interesting article describing the potential application of brain tissue oxygen monitoring technology in the care of patients who have sustained traumatic brain injury (TBI) or subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) has been published in this month's Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America (June 2006). The article presents a review of the intracranial dynamics that are created by primary and secondary brain injury, and the challenges of optimizing oxygen delivery to the injured brain.

Brain Facts: Free Book About The Brain

  You can now download a pdf version of "Brain Facts", a primer on the brain and nervous system published by the American Society of Neuroscience.

The publication has loads of great diagrams of the brain and nervous system and is well written.  It provides good descriptions of the various areas of the brain and their function.

The book is downloadable thanks to geekland.  Click here to download it.

Victims of Traumatic Brain Injury Are Also Victims of Abuse

Tne Centers for Disease Control has published a new fact sheet, “Victimization of Persons with Traumatic Brain Injury or Other Disabilities: A Fact Sheet for Professionals”   

Victimization can include physical violence, sexual violence, psychological or emotional abuse, and neglect, and research indicates that persons with disabilities are at an increased risk for victimization. 

This fact sheet was developed for professionals to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic of victimization of persons with TBI or other disabilities and to raise awareness about this serious and preventable public health problem.

Victims of traumatic brain injury are subject to physical violence, sexual violence, emotional abuse and neglect. 

According to the CDC the factors that make a person with a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, susceptible to victimization are:

Relationship Factors:

Persons living with a TBI often have difficulty with anger management, which may prompt others to use undue physical force or inappropriate medication.

Misperceptions about TBI and its effects may lead to treatment that is demeaning or abusive.

TBI outcomes affect others’ perceptions of a person’s ability to honestly and accurately report an incident of victimization.

Persons with TBI or other disabilities may experience physical and sexual violence, emotional abuse, or neglect by a caregiver in return for access to medication, adaptive equipment, or assistance with activities of daily life.

Individual Factors:

A TBI can cause cognitive problems that reduce one’s ability to perceive, remember, or understand risky situations that could lead to an incident of physical or sexual violence.

A TBI can cause cognitive problems that reduce one’s ability to perceive, remember, or understand risky situations that could lead to an incident of physical or sexual violence. 

Persons with a TBI may engage in at-risk drinking or drug use that place them in situations or relationships that lead to episodes of victimization.

In some persons, a TBI causes uninhibited behaviors that lead to risky sexual engagement, exposing them to HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases.

You can read and download the full CDC fact sheet on victimization of TBI survivors by clicking here .

New Warnings About Generators and Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Carbon monoxide poisoning is a leading cause of brain damage.  The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued new warnings yesterday concerning the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning and portable generators.

During Hurricane Preparedness Week, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is urging consumers to take steps to safeguard their families when using a portable generator. If your power is out due to a hurricane, or for any reason, operating your generator safely can mean the difference between life and death or permanent brain damage.

The exhaust from generators contains poisonous carbon monoxide, an odorless, invisible killer. "The amount of carbon monoxide from one generator is equivalent to hundreds of idling cars," said CPSC Chairman Hal Stratton. "Carbon monoxide from a portable generator can kill you and your family in minutes."

In 2005, at least 55 people died from carbon monoxide poisoning associated with portable generators. The aftermath of last year's four major hurricanes resulted in a majority (28) of those deaths.

CPSC urges consumers to follow these safety tips when operating a portable generator after a storm or other event that has caused a power outage.

* Never use a portable generator indoors, including in your home, garage, basement, crawlspace, shed or partially-enclosed area - even with ventilation. Opening doors and windows or using fans will not prevent CO buildup in the home.

* Only use a portable generator outdoors in a dry area far away from doors, windows and vents that can allow CO to come indoors.

* Install battery-operated CO alarms or plug-in CO alarms with battery back-up in your home. Test the alarms frequently and replace dead batteries.

* Get to fresh air right away if you start to feel dizzy or weak. The CO from generators can rapidly lead to full incapacitation and death.

* Plug appliances into a heavy duty, outdoor-rated extension cords and plug the cords into the generator.

* If you are concerned about theft, secure your generator outside.

Read more on the consumer product safety commisson web site.

Can A Sleeping Pill Awake Someone From A Peristent Vegetative State?

Today's latest medical news concerns a fascinating report out of South Africa where it was reported that administering a sleeping pill  (Zolpidem) to individuals in a persistent vegetative state caused them to regain consciousness for several hours and then again return to their state of unconsciousness. 

The dramatic improvement occurs within 20 minutes of taking the drug, and wears off after around four hours - at which point the patients return to their permanent vegetative state, according to a paper published in the medical journal NeuroRehabilitation.

You can read more about this by clicking here. 

Neurotechnology: A Booming New Industry

I just read an interesting interview in Brain Waves about a new field dubbed "neurotechnology" which concerns the development of effective treatment for brain related illness.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Technology Review: Why neurotechnology?

Zack Lynch: Neuroscience is now moving from a science to an industry. What we're really looking at is an evolution: researchers are now going beyond basic science and developing more effective therapeutics for brain-related illnesses.

The need is huge. One in four people worldwide suffer from a brain-related illness, which costs a trillion dollars a year in indirect and direct economic costs. We all know someone who is affected. That burden will continue to grow with the aging population. We have more people, and more people living longer -- it's a multiplier effect.

TR: We're also starting to see a new kind of therapy for brain-related illnesses -- electrical stimulation. Various types of stimulation devices are now on the market to treat epilepsy, depression, and Parkinson's disease. What are some of the near- and far-term technologies we'll see with this kind of device?

ZL: We're seeing explosive growth in this area because scientists are overcoming many of the hurdles in this area. One example is longer battery life, so devices don't have to be surgically implanted every five years. Researchers are also developing much smaller devices. Advanced Bionics, for example, has a next-generation stimulator in trials for migraines.

In the neurodevice space, the obesity market is coming on strong. Several companies are working on this, including Medtronics and Leptos Biomedical. In obesity, even a small benefit is a breakthrough, because gastric bypass surgery [one of the most common treatments for morbid obesity] is so invasive.

In the next 10 years, I think we'll start to see a combination of technologies, like maybe a brain stimulator that releases L-dopa [a treatment for Parkinson's disease]. Whether that's viable is a whole other question, but that possibility is there because of the microelectronics revolution.

The real breakthrough will come from work on new electrodes. This will transform neurostimulator applications. With these technologies, you can create noninvasive devices and target very specific parts of the brain. It's like going from a Model T to a Ferrari. Those technologies will present the real competition for drugs.

Swimming Pool Safety

With the approach of the memorial day weekend, it's important to focus on swimming pool safety and the prevention of drowning incidents.

Here are some tips and information on how parents and pool owners can provide a safe pool environment.

Drowning remains the leading cause of death among children ages one to four and the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children ages 1 to 14. Every year there are also an estimated 2,400 pool-related near-drownings among children 14 and under. In 2002, 337 children drowned in swimming pools, 70 percent of them young children ages 0-4.

Many of the young children that have drowned have simply wandered out of their own house or their relative’s or neighbor’s house into a backyard that doesn’t have a proper isolation fence or gate. Parents need to make sure they are up on the safety requirements for fences and gates surrounding their pool.  THE NUMBER ONE RULE IS TO ALWAYS KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR CHILDREN.

Active parent supervision is imperative when children are playing around pool areas.  Drowning can occur can happen in a matter of seconds. Approximately  two minutes following submersion, a child will lose consciousness. Irreversible brain damage occurs after four to six minutes and determines the immediate and long-term survival of a child.  Unfortunately, most of not all of the children who survive are left with some brain damage.

When a parent of guardian is watching a child in the pool, there should be no other distractions

Pool safety equipment, including pool covers should also be used to prevent drownings from happening. 

Additional steps that should be taken include an alarm for doors that lead to a residential pool areas. Alerting a parent that a child is entering the pool area can be the best precaution. Alarms can also be purchased  that detonate when a splash in the pool occurs.

Consumer Reports has issued a warning against above ground inflatable pools. These pools are usually not fenced in and should be emptied on a regular basis so they will not be a hazard. Unfortunately, most people fail to drain these pools.

See the warnings and recommendations about pool safety issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission

Pools and hot tubs also present the risk of entrapment. Entrapment occurs when part of a child’s body becomes attached to a drain because of the powerful suction of the filtration system. Death or serious injury can occur when the force of the suction overpowers children’s ability to free themselves from the drain.

Entrapment deaths can also occur when a child’s hair or swimsuit gets tangled in the drain or on an underwater object such as a ladder.

Entrapment is generally a little-known risk for drowning, but from 1985 to 2004,  34 children, 14 and under died as a result of pool and hot tub entrapment, and 130 children, 14 and under were injured.

Parents, caregivers and pool owners can help prevent drownings by following a few general safety tips.

• Teach children to swim and not dive where the water is shallow
• Parents should actively supervise children around water, and have a phone nearby to call for help in an emergency
• Pool owners should ensure that their pool has four-sided fencing and a self-enclosing, self-latching gate to prevent a child from wandering into the pool area unsupervised.
• Pool and hot tub owners should install a door and window alarm to alert them if a child wanders into the pool area unsupervised.
• Parents should warn children about the dangers of drain entanglement and entrapment and teach them to stay away from drains.
• Pool and hot tub owners should install protective measures to prevent entrapments, such as anti-entrapment drain covers, multiple drains, and a SVRS device to automatically release suction and shut down the pump should entrapment occur.

Thanks to Safe and Sound, an injury prevention service of T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital at Erlanger, along with representatives from the Chattanooga Fire Department for this information.  Safe and Sound is a prevention service of T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital and is the Chattanooga affiliate of Safe Kids Worldwide (formally known as the National SAFE KIDS Campaign), the first and  only national nonprofit organization dedicated solely to the prevention of unintentional childhood injury – the No.1 killer of children ages 14 and under.

3D Computer Stimulation of Human Brain

The Blue Brain project is a collaboration of IBM, the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, or EPFL, in Lausanne, Switzerland, and others. The project is an attempt to create a blueprint of the human brain to advance cognition research.

Last year, EPFL bought a multimillion-dollar model of IBM's Blue Gene/L supercomputer for the two-year project, which is being conducted in Switzerland. The group only recently simulated the firing of 10,000 neurons in a single column in the neocortex, the largest area of the human brain governing high-level thinking and action. (A column typically contains 100,000 neurons.)

A computer simulation of 10,000 neurons firing in the human brain produces a terabyte of data--a fraction of what it would take to map the brain's billions of neurons in algorithms.

The announcement was made at Cognitive Computing conference, a two-day gathering hosted by IBM's Almaden Institute.

Read the full story on this conference by clicking here .

Low Apgar Scores May Predict Epilepsy Risk In New Borns

Newborns with low Apgar scores -- indicating that they have serious physical difficulties -- are more likely to develop epilepsy during childhood and early adulthood than those with higher scores, according to a new study published in the Journal Epidemiology.

Apgar scoring is a method of quickly checking newborns, based on their heart rate, breathing, muscle tone, response to a stimulus, and color. The maximum score is 10, and the assessment is made at 1 minute and 5 minutes after babies are born.

Epilepsy incidence increased consistently with decreasing 1- and 5-minute Apgar scores. For example, the incidence per 100,000 person-years was 628 for those with 5-minute Apgar scores of 1 to 3, versus 86 for those with scores of 10.

The incidence of epilepsy was 8 times higher among children with Apgar scores of 1 to 3 at both 1 and 5 minutes compared with children with scores of 10 at both time points.

The occurrence of epilepsy associated with low Apgar score was greatest during the first year of life, but the risk remained elevated throughout childhood and up to 25 years of age.

Click here to read an abstract of the article from the Epidemiology Journal.

University Illinois-Chicago: Head Injury Study Volunteers Sought

The University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) is seeking volunteers who have ever had a head injury. The evaluation includes written tests of intellectual function, functional MRI, and eye movement testing. They will reimburse you for your time.

If you have ever had a head injury of any severity, including concussions, even without loss of consciousness,  they would be happy to talk with you further.

They are also conducting a National Institute of Health (NIH)  sponsored study to assess a treatment to improve function after any severity of traumatic brain injury (TBI). 

For further information: Contact Shannon Sisco in Psychiatry at 312-355-5017 or 
Or you can click here .