Brain Injury Resource Center

A recent BBC highlighted the need in the UK for a full review of the treatment facilities and protocols for treatment and support to patients with traumatic brain injury of injury through rehabilitation and return to life community generally in good environment. Jim Stewart, a traumatic brain injury patient in the Musgrave Park Hospital Rehabilitation Center, expected to return home to his family. Stewart can not be placed with his family until the house is well equipped with the necessary equipment for the specialized care his condition requires.

Stewart’s family is one of the many families struggling to keep their loved ones with traumatic brain injuries. They had to fight for assistance in restructuring their lives to bring back Jim Stewart at home. His case highlights a community-the lack of variety of resources and strategies for the care of victims of brain injuries.

Stewart, like many other patients at the Regional Acquired Brain Injury Unit at Musgrave Park Hospital, has remained in hospital long after he was allowed to pass to family or community care because there no place for him to go to receive the support and attention they need. Nursing homes are not equipped to care for patients with traumatic brain injury, and most families are even less.

Traumatic brain injuries leave patients in a series of conditions ¾ coma and unresponsive, through a wide range of physical and cognitive disabilities, fully active and dynamic with subtle cognitive dysfunction. In more severe cases, families and hospital staff are finding that most of the communities and homes are fully prepared to properly care for victims of brain injuries during the long years of recovery.

Dr. John McCann of the Regional Acquired Brain Injury Unit at Musgrave lamented the lack of community institutions and support for brain injury patients. He called for the establishment of transitional care facilities to facilitate the transition from hospital to community life. Since brain injuries often leave patients and their families “in the fog,” as McCann, navigating the path from the initial treatment of community placement can be very treacherous, frustrating and difficult.

“No nursing home care in particular for people with brain injuries and only a small number of households are registered to provide the necessary care. However, these are full and waiting lists. All this puts pressure on the Patients’ families and the availability of beds for other people who need specialized care, “the article from the BBC News.

These issues demonstrate the growing need for community education and awareness, a comprehensive review of hospital care and rehabilitation, government support and assistance for families and patients, and the construction of transitional care facilities designed specifically for patients with brain injury.

Hospital accident and emergency departments see a steady flow of people with head injuries. The majority found that minor head injuries and the recovery may be complicated. However, some people will need medical care to a variety of reasons, depending on the nature of head injury and a very small proportion of these has had a serious head injury that may require surgical treatment. Common causes of severe head injury are traffic accidents, falls and assault.

Features that would be an issue after a head injury are:

* Headache that gets worse or does not disappear within four to six hours after the injury occurred
* Drowsiness, if it lasts more than two hours, or if the person is hard to arouse
* Confusion and disorientation
* Nausea or vomiting indeed common following a head injury, but if it is persistent or appears to be worse, could be serious

Your doctor may order blood tests to see if there is a general medical problem or to verify that the injured person’s blood from clotting properly. X-rays may be needed to see if the skull had been fractured, or to see if any glass or metal in the wound if it breaks the skin. In some cases, a CT scan of the brain will be conducted to see if there is any bleeding inside the head, or brain swelling.

A mixture of blood and fluid can accumulate in the brain surface several days or weeks after a head injury relatively minor. This is called a chronic subdural hematoma. This can cause pressure on the brain and progressive worsening of symptoms such as headache, drowsiness, confusion, problems with speech or weakness on one side of the body. Chronic subdural hematoma can be seen on a CT scan of the brain and are usually easily treated by simple drainage operation (through holes).

Many people who attend emergency departments because of a head injury have been left out. If this is the case, and seems to have returned to normal after that is said to have concussion. This means that for a short time the effects of head injury was severe enough to keep the brain functioning properly and as a result, he lost consciousness.

Although CT may not show any abnormality in these cases, there may be small areas of brain damage that could have a major impact on recovery. Some people can not return to school, college or work because of the effects of concussion. If shock has occurred, doctors often classify the injury as moderate.

Post-concussion symptoms are common following:

* Headaches that do not follow any particular pattern, although it may be worse towards the end of the day
* Loss of concentration with a poor attention span, so that the person loses track of talks, films and books
* Memory loss. After major shock people often unable to remember the event and a period of time thereafter. You may also find that impairs memory for recent events.
* Of the person’s personality can be altered. Most commonly, they may be more irritable or angry
* There may be other specific problems such as loss of sexual appetite, loss of ofappetite, apathy or disinterest in life and lack of self-esteem confidence andself

If you have been involved in a head injury please contact the emergency department.

NFL New Study Confirms Long-term consequences of concussions

After years of denying the long-term effects of concussions suffered by football players, National Football League has reported that he had commissioned a study that found that Alzheimer’s disease or similar memory-related diseases appears have been diagnosed in the former League players more often then in the national population.

According to a New York Times published on 29 September 2009, “These figures could become Leagues’ first public sign of any connection between Alzheimer’s and football-concussion.” Dr. Julian Bailes, Director, Department of Neurosurgery at West Virginia University School of Medicine and former team physician of the Pittsburgh Steelers, whose study found similar links four years ago, was quoted as saying, “This is a game of changer – the whole debate, the ball now in the NFL. They always say, ‘We’re going to do our own research and now they have. ”

According to the study, researchers conducted a telephone survey of 1,063 retired players who were asked a number of issues arising from the standard National Health Interview Survey, so that rates could be compared with those collected from the general population. The researchers found that 6.1 percent of players age 50 and over reported having received a diagnosis related to dementia, five times the national average above 1.2 percent. Players ages 30 to 49 displayed a rate of 1.9 percent or ten, and nine times the national average of .1 percent.