Brain Injury News

Subscribe to Brain Injury News

Bruce Stern’s Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog has been nominated for participation in The Expert Institute’s 2017 Best Legal Blog Contest.

Nominees were divided into nine categories ranging from criminal law to legal technology. With an open voting format that allows participants one vote per blog, each blog will be ranked within their category by the number of votes they receive. The three blogs that receive the most votes in each category will be declared the winners in those categories and will earn a permanent position in the Institute’s Best Legal Blogs Hall of Fame.

Voting began on September 25 and continues until November 4th.

Readers can submit one vote per blog, but can vote for as many blogs as they like across every category.

The Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog’s voting page is here.

About The Expert Institute: Founded in 2011, The Expert Institute is a technology-driven platform for connecting qualified experts in every field with lawyers, investment firms, and journalists looking for technical expertise and guidance.

A New York trial court recently denied defendants’ motion to compel plaintiff’s radiologist to produce Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) control group data.

In Siracusa v. City Ice Pavilion, LLC, the plaintiff was injured while participating in an ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, held at a hockey rink owned and operated by the defendant. Plaintiff sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI), allegedly at the fault of the defendant. Plaintiff underwent an MRI-DTI which was analyzed by Dr. Michael Lipton. Dr. Lipton’s DTI analysis lead to the conclusion that the plaintiff has abnormally low FA levels, which is consistent with traumatic axonal injury, although also consistent with other non-traumatic causes.

Continue Reading New York Court Upholds Validity of DTI

According to the Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium (CENC), nearly 20 percent of the 2.5 million service members and veterans who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan sustained at least one mild traumatic brain injury (mild TBI).

A U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs/Department of Defense study aims to track mild TBI (mTBI) over a decades-long period. The federally-funded study is enrolling service members and veterans who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan. Researchers hope to follow participants for 20 years or more to better understand the long-term neurologic effects of mild TBI and other deployment-related conditions.

Continue Reading VA Study to Follow Mild TBI Patients for Decades

Traumatic brain injury (“TBI”) is considered the main cause of hypopituitarism in adults and growth hormone (“GH”) deficiency is the most common pituitary deficit associated with TBI.

According to Cedars-Sinai, even after we stop growing, adults need growth hormone. Growth hormone plays a role in healthy muscle, how our bodies collect fat (especially around the stomach area), the ratio of high density to low density lipoproteins in cholesterol levels, and bone density. In addition, growth hormone is needed for normal brain function.

Continue Reading Growth Hormone Deficiency Following Complicated Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

The construction industry has the greatest number of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) among U.S. workplaces, according to a recent study conducted by researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

The American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM) reports that the data show that 2210 occupational TBI deaths occurred between 2003 and 2010. Continue Reading TBI Injuries on Construction Sites

A Connecticut trial court has upheld the use of diffusion tensor imagining (DTI), denying the defendants’ in limine motion to bar its introduction. In Vizzo v. Fairfield Bedfort, LLC, plaintiff retained Randall Benson, M.D.,  a behavioral neurologist, to conduct a behavioral neurological evaluation, to administer and interpret a DTI of the plaintiff and correlate  it with clinical findings.

Continue Reading Connecticut Court Upholds Admissibility of DTI

At the annual meeting of the Association of Academic Physiatrists, Brad Kurowski, MD, MS, a physician in the division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Cincinnati Children’ Hospital presented his research on the long term effects of TBI among children.

Continue Reading Study Finds Long Term Effect of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Children Seven Years Post Injury

It is our pleasure to share with you that after extensive due diligence and thoughtful consideration, the boards of the North American Brain Injury Society (NABIS) and the International Brain Injury Association (IBIA), have voted unanimously to approve a formal affiliation agreement under which NABIS will join IBIA as a special section. This agreement, drafted by Jeffrey Leiter, the long-time outside counsel for both organizations, will allow NABIS and IBIA to deliver significantly enhanced membership benefits to the brain injury professionals that make up both groups. Members of NABIS and IBIA will now have access to a comprehensive set of benefits that combines the strengths of both organizations, providing a more valuable membership experience and the opportunity to be part of a larger and more influential alliance.

Specifically, the full suite of membership benefits now includes: Continue Reading The North American Brain Injury Society enters into formal affiliation agreement with the International Brain Injury Association

Brain concussions and the potential for long lasting effects of a mild brain injury are not always obvious to healthcare providers at the time of injury. But recent advances are being made to create tools and tests to assess the potential for long term post-concussion symptoms (PCS) in patients. This is particularly important because recent studies have shown that even mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI) can cause long term healthcare problems.

A recently published study at the University of Cincinnati involved the use of robotic tests to evaluate the risk of long term healthcare problems in  ER patients with concussion symptoms. The tests (KINARM Standard Tests) tracked specific body movements and behavior, e.g., evaluating a patient’s “position sense” in relationship to arm movement. The study outcomes showed that the robotic tests, created by BKIN Technologies Ltd. in Canada, were able to “discriminate between subjects who developed post-concussion syndrome and those who did not.” It was evident in performance data that patients with poor results in “visuomotor and proprioceptive” were more likely to suffer from post-concussion syndrome. The short videos below demonstrate how test results differ between a healthy patient and one who has suffered a brain injury.

Currently the KINARM Labs are only available in research, but if additional studies support the results, robotic movement and behavioral tools may soon become available in emergency rooms to help predict long term outcomes for patients with mild traumatic brain injuries.

If you or someone in your family has had a concussive episode or other type of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), you should consult an experienced attorney to assess your eligibility for financial assistance from medical or other insurance carriers. Consultations are usually free and services are often offered on a contingency basis.