June 30, 2009, 12:06 pm

Blasts and Brute Force May Be Same to Brain

A recent report from the New York Times suggests that blast-related brain injuries may share some similarities with the repeated concussions suffered by athletes in high-contact sports:

“If protein deposits and tangles appear in the hippocampus area of the brain, for instance, then they would affect short-term memory; appearance in the frontal lobes could impair executive function, and in the cerebellum coordination and balance. The researchers will also be looking at possible genetic factors.”

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June 23, 2009, 8:17 am

Epilepsy Risk Post Brain Injury

According to Medpage today a study by Jakob Christensen of Aarhus University Hospital and colleagues shows that there is an increased epilepsy risk for at least 10 years post brain injury. The researchers came to this conclusion after reviewing 1,605,216 medical records for those who had suffered a brain injury, skull fracture and epilepsy. They found that in a comparison to those with no brain injury or fracture the risk of epilepsy was doubled after mild brain injury, such as concussion, seven times higher after severe brain injury, and twice as high after skull fracture.

They also found that brain injury was associated with an increased risk of epilepsy in all age groups, but the risk increased with age for mild and severe injury and was highest among people older than 15 at the time of injury.

The relative risk of epilepsy after mild brain injury was higher among women than among men — 2.49 versus 2.01 — but there was no interaction with sex for severe injury.

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