Articles: traumatic-brain-injuries.
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Encephalocele is a rare condition that consists of herniation of cerebral matter through openings of dura and skull. A majority of encephaloceles are congenital and manifest in childhood. ⋯ Surgical treatment with reduction of the encephalocele achieved near resolution of preoperative hemiparesis on follow-up. The pathogenesis and a literature review of IE are discussed.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Jan 2017
Cyclic Head Rotations Produce Modest Brain Injury in Infant Piglets.
Repetitive back-and-forth head rotation from vigorous shaking is purported to be a central mechanism responsible for diffuse white matter injury, subdural hemorrhage, and retinal hemorrhage in some cases of abusive head trauma (AHT) in young children. Although animal studies have identified mechanisms of traumatic brain injury (TBI) associated with single rapid head acceleration-decelerations at levels experienced in a motor vehicle crash, few experimental studies have investigated TBI from repetitive head rotations. The objective of this study was to systematically investigate the post-injury pathological time-course after cyclic, low-velocity head rotations in the piglet and compare them with single head rotations. ⋯ Cyclic head rotations, however, produced modest AI that significantly increased with time post-injury (p < 0.035) and had significantly greater amounts of RCNAC and EAH than noncyclic head rotations after 24 h post-injury (p < 0.05). No OI was observed. Future studies should investigate the contributions of additional physiological and mechanical features associated with AHT (e.g., hyperflexion/extension, increased intracranial pressure from crying or thoracic compression, and more than two cyclic episodes) to enhance our understanding of the causality between proposed mechanistic factors and AHT in infants.
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Restor. Neurol. Neurosci. · Jan 2017
Rehabilitation modality and onset differentially influence whisker sensory hypersensitivity after diffuse traumatic brain injury in the rat.
As rehabilitation strategies advance as therapeutic interventions, the modality and onset of rehabilitation after traumatic brain injury (TBI) are critical to optimize treatment. Our laboratory has detected and characterized a late-onset, long-lasting sensory hypersensitivity to whisker stimulation in diffuse brain-injured rats; a deficit that is comparable to visual or auditory sensory hypersensitivity in humans with an acquired brain injury. ⋯ These data indicate that modality and onset of sensory rehabilitation can differentially influence FPI and sham rats, having a lasting impact on behavioral and stress responses to the WNT, emphasizing the necessity for continued evaluation of modality and onset of rehabilitation after TBI.
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NeuroImage. Clinical · Jan 2017
Activation of dominant hemisphere association cortex during naming as a function of cognitive performance in mild traumatic brain injury: Insights into mechanisms of lexical access.
Patients with a history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and objective cognitive deficits frequently experience word finding difficulties in normal conversation. We sought to improve our understanding of this phenomenon by determining if the scores on standardized cognitive testing are correlated with measures of brain activity evoked in a word retrieval task (confrontational picture naming). The study participants (n = 57) were military service members with a history of mTBI. ⋯ These findings may indicate weak afferent inputs to and within an extended cortical network including association cortex of the dominant hemisphere in patients with low cognitive performance. The association between word finding difficulties and low cognitive performance may therefore be the result of a diffuse pathophysiological process affecting distributed neuronal networks serving a wide range of cognitive processes. These findings also provide support for a parallel processing model of lexical access.
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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a critical public health problem worldwide with a significant socioeconomic burden. Although improved safety regulations in high-income countries have resulted in a decline in traffic-related TBI, the incidence of TBI in low-income countries is on the rise. We illustrate the trends and factors involved in TBI in a large Cambodian governmental hospital in Phnom Penh. In addition, suggestions for improvement of the country's road traffic safety are discussed. ⋯ Our study suggests prevention and management of TBIs can have a measurable public health impact in Cambodia. Initiative examples include helmet safety awareness campaigns, stricter penalties, improvement of prehospital care, and more efficient triage. A high proportion of unhelmeted motorcycle accidents correlates with an increase in epidural hematomas.