Neuroinflammation is swelling in the brain. It’s bad news. Swelling occurs in many neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. Alternatively, diseases such as hypertension or diabetes lead to stroke, which in turn triggers neuroinflammation. Or bad luck strikes and someone suffers a traumatic brain injury, which leads to neuroinflammation. Neuroinflammation is a common…
How do you boost neuroplasticity after a traumatic brain injury? What can you do to ensure that you make the best recovery possible? Neuroplasticity and the Long Haul Recovery from a traumatic brain injury can be a long and difficult journey. It that may take a number of years, even longer than the two year…
“Worldwide, more than 50 million people have a traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year, and it is estimated that about half the world’s population will have one or more TBIs over their lifetime.” The Lancet Neurology More than 80% of these brain injuries occur in the developing world. It costs an an estimated $US 400…
One of the myths in the neurosciences is that recovery after TBI (traumatic brain injury) plateaus two years after the injury. When discussing recovery from TBI, myths and legends abound. We tend to lose sight of basic neuroscientific principles. Clinicians tell families that recovery after TBI stops after two years. In legal matters, opinion can…
Oxygenation as Treatment for Brain Injury Should we treat brain injury patients with oxygenation? It seems an almost silly question. Surely it’s that obvious that we should! Yet when we investigate the utility of pumping large amounts of oxygen into an injured brain, it turns out that the answer is not that simple. A quick…
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) created these beautiful brain scans. You’d think that the colours were added by a creative artist. Actually, the colours are a code that tells us about the direction of fluid flow in the fibre tracts of the brain. A DTI scan can therefore be used to map the brain’s fibre tracts.…
In South Africa the leading cause of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is interpersonal violence, whereas in most countries motor vehicle accidents are the primary cause of TBI. A recently published study into TBI admissions at two state hospitals in the city of Pietermaritzburg found that 39.4% of cases were due to deliberate interpersonal violence, as…
