Traumatic Brain Injury Treatment

The success of a new procedure on a 38 year old man who was mugged and beaten unconscious six years ago may change the way brain injury patients are treated.

His skull was completely crushed and he was left for dead. He fell into a coma, but subsequently improved to a minimally conscious state. He has remained in this minimally conscious state for six years. His parents had lost hope and told doctors not to resuscitate him if his condition worsened. Shortly thereafter he was selected for a new deep brain stimulus procedure.

The patient remains unidentified, but the procedure was chronicled for the journal Nature by Dr, Ali Rezai from the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Neurological Restoration and a team of specialists from the JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute-Center for Head Injuries in Edison NJ and the Weil Cornell Medical College in New York.

A device similar to a heart pacemaker which is manufactured by Medtronic Inc. was implanted under the patient's skin on his chest and electrodes implanted deep into his brain to deliver stimuli.

Due to the deep-brain stimulation, the patient is now awake and able to eat, drink from a cup, play cards, watch a movie and now speaks 16 words. He is able to express what he wants and does not want and with the combined treatment of psychiatrists psychologists and ethicists, his quality of life seems to be acceptable and improving.

Deep brain stimulation has been used on Parkinson's patients. It has also been used successfully to treat epilepsy and some forms of severe depression. This is the first time the deep brain stimulus procedure has been used on a patient with traumatic brain injury.

The success of this treatment has encouraged researchers and physicians. More patients in minimally conscious states are currently being recruited to participate in further studies of this procedure.

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