HealthcareIT News recently reported that Kinetic Muscles, Inc. (KMI) has received additional funding from the Department of Defense (DOD) to begin Phase II of their study on the benefits of using video game-based therapies for treatment of military veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Many in brain injury rehabilitation have used video games to assist with motor skills training, improve balance and coordination, enhance attention and address other aspects of the significant cognitive and motor problems that people experience after TBI.

Read more: http://www.traumaticbraininjury.net/video-game-based-therapy-may-help-treat-tbi/

BrainLineMilitary provides military-specific information and resources on traumatic brain injury from interviews with medical experts about diagnosis and treatment for TBI and PTSD to personal stories by service members or veterans who have learned from having their own brain injury.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has launched a campaign to increase awareness about traumatic brain injury and services provided by the VA for veterans and service members recovering from TBI and co-occurring complex injuries.

The campaign debuted with a 25-minute documentary last week highlighting individual stories of recovery for some of the most severely injured and wounded veterans through the VA Polytrauma System of Care at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Va.

The documentary and other videos can be viewed at www.polytrauma.va.gov.

Sixty-six percent of the most seriously wounded soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq have “invisible” injuries of brain trauma or post-traumatic stress, which their families and society will deal with at great cost for decades, said Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the Army’s vice chief of staff

Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/injuries-126178-treatment-returning.html#ixzz1ZvbHHI7D

Nearly 1,400 U.S. servicemembers were found to have concussions or mild brain injuries in Afghanistan and Iraq this year under a program that forces servicemembers to take a break from combat when exposed to a blast or other jarring incident.

The military has pulled about 9,000 servicemembers from combat for short periods of time to look for signs of brain injury after blasts that caused no obvious wounds, according to data given to USA TODAY.

Most of the servicemembers were OK; those with symptoms of dizziness, headaches and difficulty processing thoughts were kept out of combat until the problems went away, the Army said.

The mandatory examination is part of a treatment program put in place last year to uncover hidden and subtle damage to the brain caused by exposure to blasts — injuries that would have likely gone undiagnosed.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2011-09-27/military-diagnoses-more-brain-injuries-trauma-battle-combat-policy/50575536/1

A half-dozen Marines with brain injuries from combat in Afghanistan or Iraq will crawl inside a hyperbaric chamber at Camp Pendleton next week to begin eight weeks of treatment breathing pure oxygen to see if it speeds their recovery.

Up to 100 base troops eventually are expected to take part in the study trying to find the best treatments for what is known as traumatic brain injury.

Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/military/article_b93bb889-8830-5f98-801b-0d5278c1871b.html#ixzz1ZjaqpNYs

Military men and women now are returning with brain injuries that would have been fatal in earlier times. Here's how the nation's warriors and the medical teams that treat them are fighting these unseen battles.

Read more: http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/health/20816.html

Dr. Dan Perl, neuropathologist, spent the last two years looking at the brains of former NFL players and the effect traumatic brain injury has on them.  What he found was that a great number of former NFL players developed chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.  Perl now plans to conduct similar research on brains from members of the military.  He has recently been hired by the Uniformed Services University for Health Sciences, the military's medical school in Bethesda, Md., to establish the Military Brain Injury Studies program.

Read more: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20110816/NEWS01/108160317

Thousands of troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have sustained traumatic brain injury (TBI), an invisible wound that is poorly understood and difficult to diagnose and treat.

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