Latest Persistent vegetative state Stories
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online New research from the Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School has shown that doctor’s actually experience pain and relief based on their patients' reactions to treatment. The study, which was done by performing brain scans on doctors as they treated patients, provides new insight into the doctor-patient relationship. "Our findings showed that the same brain regions...
Disorders of consciousness such as coma or a vegetative state caused by severe brain injury are poorly understood and their diagnosis has relied mainly on patient responses and measures of brain activity. However, new functional and imaging-based diagnostic tests that measure communication and signaling between different brain regions may provide valuable information about the potential for consciousness in patients unable to communicate. These innovative approaches are described and compared...
High levels of tau protein in fluid bathing the brain are linked to poor recovery after head trauma, according to a study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Fondazione IRCCS Ca Granda-Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico in Milan, Italy. “We are particularly interested in finding ways to predict prognosis after traumatic brain injury,” says senior author David L. Brody, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology at Washington University. “Right now, it’s...
While relatively new treatment for Parkinson's disease, other movement disorders gains acceptance, its timing is key and it is not appropriate for all patients, researchers sayWhile deep brain stimulation has gained recognition by referring physicians as a treatment for Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders, just half of the patients they recommend are appropriate candidates to begin this relatively new therapy immediately, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles...
Patients with a severe traumatic brain injury (and not in shock because of blood loss) who received out-of-hospital administration of hypertonic fluids (a solution with increased concentration of certain electrolytes and thought to help reduce intracranial pressure) as initial resuscitation did not experience better 6-month neurologic outcomes or survival compared to patients who received a normal saline solution, according to a study in the October 6 issue of JAMA.Traumatic brain injury...
Study tests if familiar voices can heal traumatic brain injuriesKaren Schroeder's voice, recorded on a CD, reminded her son, Ryan, of his 4-H project when he was 10 and decided to raise pigs. "You bid on three beautiful squealing black and white piglets at the auction," she said softly. "We took them home in the trunk of our Lincoln Town Car, because we didn't have a truck."Recordings from Ryan's mother, father or sister were played through headphones for him four times a...
A study by British and Belgian researchers found that a man who had been presumed to be in a vegetative state for five years, can communicate "yes" and "no" using only his thought patterns, Reuters reported.The researchers said the man sustained a severe traumatic brain injury in a traffic accident in 2003. He remained physically unresponsive and was presumed to be in a vegetative state for five years.The study results, published in the authoritative New England Journal of...
Research gives insight into possible rehabilitation of some patientsScientists have found that some individuals in the vegetative and minimally conscious states, despite lacking the means of reporting awareness themselves, can learn and thereby demonstrate at least a partial consciousness. Their findings are reported in today's (September 20) online edition of Nature Neuroscience.It is the first time that scientists have tested whether patients in vegetative and minimally conscious states can...
A sixteen-month study of consensus-based diagnosis of patients with disorders of consciousness has shown that 41% of cases of minimally conscious state (MCS) were misdiagnosed as vegetative state (VS), a condition associated with a much lower chance of recovery. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Neurology have demonstrated that standardized neurobehavioral assessment is more sensitive than diagnoses determined by clinical consensus.Steven Laureys, from the University of...
A Florida court holds in its hands the life of a 57-year-old woman, whose husband and mother disagree over whether she should be taken off life support. Karen Weber has been in a partial vegetative state since suffering a stroke in December, WPBF-TV, Palm Beach, Fla., reports. Weber is currently hospitalized on a feeding tube. Her husband, Raymond Weber, wants the tube removed to allow her to die. "She has pneumonia," he said. "She has colostomy bags. She has a breathing apparatus." Karen's...
