Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Monthly Archives: October 2015

Gun violence often leads to spinal cord injuries in Baltimore

Baltimore is one of only nine cities where gun violence is the leading cause of spinal cord injuries. The fallout from spinal cord injuries related to gun violence is a lifetime of medical challenges and what some call an epidemic: black men in wheelchairs, paralyzed from being shot on the streets of Baltimore.

SDSU’s Brain Chip Could Eliminate Spinal Cord Injury Paralysis

Researchers at San Diego State University and two other schools won a $15 million grant to continue their work on a brain chip that could help people with traumatic spinal cord injuries undo the effects of paralysis, it was announced Monday.

Autonomic dysreflexia in spinal cord injury

Autonomic dysreflexia often goes unrecognised in patients with spinal cord injury. Health professionals must be able to recognise when patients are at risk. A young patient with tetraplegia arrives in the emergency department with a severe headache, dilated pupils, beads of sweat on their forehead, chest pain, bradycardia and a blood pressure of 280/130. What do you think is happening? Recreational drug use? A hypertensive crisis with a renal, endocrine or neurological cause? Is your immediate response to carry out an electrocardiogram and blood tests? In fact, this life-threatening emergency could be caused by something as simple as a full bladder.

Activity and Chronic Spinal Cord Injury

Activity-based restorative therapy continues to gain in popularity. By combining progressive interventions with a focus on restoration of function lost to paralysis, ABRT has proven to have a significant impact on patients function and quality of life.

Company surprises employee with high-tech wheelchair

A company known for its top-secret tanks is keeping its biggest and best secret for one of their own. For the past four months employees at Howe and Howe Technologies in Waterboro have been secretly building a "Ripchair 3.0" for Tony Tulo, a salesperson at the company who is paralyzed from the chest down.

The iPhone setting that changed this man’s life

Todd Stabelfeldt is sending his wife a romantic text. He taps his chin on a button mounted on his wheelchair, then grins, pleased with his wooing. A quadriplegic since he was 8, Stabelfeldt can't move anything below his neck. Now a 36-year-old engineer and business owner, he's turned his wheelchair into a powerful mobile communication hub using switches, a Bluetooth headset and an iPhone 6.

Boosting Nerve Regeneration in Spinal Cord Injury with Axons

Spinal cord injury regeneration may be possible harnessing the brain repair mechanism known as axons, according to findings published in The Journal of Neuroscience. Researchers from University of South Carolina examined RNA function in order to test the ability of axons to aid regeneration of nerves. The team set out to find a way to bridge what they called the “regenerative gap” between the peripheral nervous system and the central nervous system.

The Latest Medical Breakthrough In Spinal Cord Injuries Was Made By A Computer Program

New software sifts through the information gathered in long forgotten studies and finds new avenues for researchers to pursue—like a new advance in treating spinal injuries. Doctors have just discovered a previously unknown relationship between the long-term recovery of spinal cord injury victims and high blood pressure during their initial surgeries. This may seem like a small bit of medical news—though it will have immediate clinical implications—but what's important is how it was discovered in the first place.

Looking beyond the wheels

As Robert Thompkins climbed to the top of Green Valley Falls in September 2005, he had no idea that in a few short moments he would never walk again. He made the decision to jump off a cliff into the water below, never knowing how incredibly shallow it was. As he hit the rocks beneath the surface, he severed his spinal cord from the T12 to the L3 vertebrae. He was 25.

Understanding Disability: Spinal cord injury doesn’t stop Santa Fe man from seeking adventures

The World Health Organization estimates every year between 250,000 and 500,000 people suffer a spinal cord injury from an accident. Studies report that men account for 61 percent of all traumatic spinal cord injuries and women 39 percent. At 17 years old, Gene Rodgers had plans to homestead in Alaska until he fell from a cliff, breaking his neck and causing instant paralysis from the shoulders down.