BrainBlog

Several days ago, the CDC released a report entitled, "Traumatic Brain Injury in the United States: Emergency Department Visits, Hospitalizations, and Deaths, 2002-2006" - available as a .pdf (and .doc) download. Download the report

Surgery for Mental Ills Offers Hope and Risk By BENEDICT CAREY The New York Times Published: November 27, 2009 "Hundreds have undergone brain surgery for problems like depression, anxiety, even obesity." Read the article

My brain abscess and me I had no idea I had a potentially fatal infection. Now, after my life-saving surgery, I will never take my health for granted again Tim Lusher The Guardian Tuesday 3 November 2009 Read Tim's narrative report here . [snip] "Finally, on Tuesday morning, someone realises something is horribly wrong. My GP sees immediately that my gait is clumsy, my focus wild, my speech slurring. She sends me straight to A&E at the Royal London hospital and phones ahead to order a brain scan. There, I collapse gratefully into the care of doctors and nurses." [snip]

From the excellent blog, MedGadgets , a post about MRI dynamic computer modelling for neurosurgical interventions: link .

The 61st annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society (AES) will take place in Philadelphia, from the 30th of November through the 5th of December. Details about the meeting can be found on the meeting webpage of the AES website.

A curious case report discussed in today's New York Times : Man Regains Speech After Brain Stimulation By BENEDICT CAREY Published: August 1, 2007 A 38-year-old man who spent more than five years in a mute, barely conscious state as a result of a severe head injury is now communicating regularly with family members and recovering his ability to move after having his brain stimulated with pulses of electric current, neuroscientists are reporting. [snip] The new report, which appears in the journal Nature , provides the first rigorous evidence that any procedure can initiate and sustain recovery in such a severely disabled person, years after the injury occurred. An estimated 100,000 to 300,000 Americans subsist in states of partial consciousness, and most are written off as beyond help. Doctors said it was not clear how many such patients would benefit from the treatment, in which two wire electrodes are implanted deep in the brain. The procedure also raises sticky ethical questions...