Category: Brain Injury

Less than half of patients with a sports-related traumatic brain injury such as a concussion recover within two weeks. The new research study challenges current perceptions that most people with sports-related head injuries recover within 10 to 14 days. The research’s authors at Axis Sports Medicine in Auckland, New Zealand, analyzed recovery time in nearly 600 patients in New Zealand treated during a two-year period for sports-related traumatic brain injuries. More than three out of four were male and their average age was 20. About 7.5% were under the age of 12. …Read the rest »

Deaths related to traumatic brain injuries from falls are increasing across the United States, according to a report released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Researchers used death certificate data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia and trends for deaths from traumatic brain injuries that were caused by unintentional falls. …Read the rest »

When it comes to effectiveness in protecting soldiers from certain types of traumatic brain injuries, your great-grandfather’s World War I helmet might be just as effective, if not more effective, a new study by Duke University researchers has found. According to a news report on PBS, the study looks at the effects of overhead explosions. But it still raises questions about why today’s military helmet designs, with all the technological advances we have today, are not significantly better when it comes to head injury protection compared to helmets used more than 100 years ago. …Read the rest »

A new study is showing that when it comes to boxing and mixed martial arts (MMA), the effects of traumatic brain injuries are different for younger, current fighters and older, retired fighters. The study, which was published in the Dec. 23 2019 online issue of the journal Neurology, looked into whether there is a safe level of exposure for these athletes when it comes to head trauma. …Read the rest »

A new study conducted by the University of British Columbia and published in The Lancet Public Health revealed that people who are homeless experience a disproportionately high lifetime prevalence of traumatic brain injuries. The meta-analysis examined 38 studies published between 1995 and 2018.

It’s the first type of analysis to examine the prevalence of brain injuries or head injuries in people who are in unstable housing situations. The results show that one in two or 53% of homeless people had suffered a brain injury and one in four (25%) have experienced a traumatic brain injury that is moderate or severe. …Read the rest »

Deaths tied to traumatic brain injuries have risen amid higher rates of suicides and accidental falls in the United States. According to a report released by U.S. News, every year, millions of people are hospitalized or go to the emergency room for traumatic brain injuries, which are usually caused by violent blows to the head and can lead to death or disabilities. In 2017 alone, there were 61,131 TBI-related fatalities. Nearly half of these deaths were by suicide or homicide from 2015-2017, the study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated. …Read the rest »

If your child is in high school sports, you are probably concerned if he or she would be affected by concussions or traumatic brain injuries and how it might affect them. According to a new study, there is good and bad news. The rates of football practice concussions and recurrent concussions across all sports have gone down in recent years, the study published in the journal Pediatrics states. The bad news is that concussion rates have increased in football games. …Read the rest »

A new study shows that former professional football players with chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated concussions, doubled their risk of developing the worst forms of the disease for every 5.3 years they played. According to a report in The New York Times, scientists have known that more years playing tackle football is associated with thinking and memory deficits later in life. This study builds on that research. But, for the first time, it calculated the number of years played with levels of measurable damage to the brain. …Read the rest »

Even one brain injury could raise the risk of dementia decades later, according to a new study. An article in the Financial Times cites research from the Imperial College in London, which has found that a single serious head injury could lead to brain damage even if the patient makes a full recovery in the short term. …Read the rest »

A California woman is suing a Los Angeles school district claiming that her son was left with permanent brain and spinal injuries after another student choked him during a bullying incident last year, which was caught on video. According to an NBC news report, the mother said her son, 12 years old at the time, was a sixth-grader at Animo Westside Charter Middle School. The lawsuit states the boy was “brutally assaulted and strangled” in January 2018 by a 14-year-old who allegedly had been violent toward other students, according to a lawsuit filed Monday, Aug. 12, in Los Angeles Superior Court. …Read the rest »