Brain Injury Treatment May Change

by Larry Jameson
(Arkansas)

June 2009: Brain injury treatment in the hospital emergency room or intensive care unit may change if suspicions are correct at the Brain Injury Resource Center at UCLA.

The BIRC in the UCLA Department of Neurosurgery has been awarded a $4.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to research new ways to heal the brain after a traumatic brain injury, or TBI. Specifically, researchers will be looking at how to best feed the brain the nutrients it needs to optimize recovery.

Research at BIRC shows the exact opposite of what has been considered "standard" thinking about the brain after it has suffered a trauma. The common thinking for years has been that the brain goes into a coma or a docile state and requires very little energy or nutrients. The UCLA staff, headed by BIRC director and professor of neurosurgery David Hovda, believes the brain requires vast amounts of energy following a trauma.

As to the standard practice of giving insulin to control the levels of glucose that would take the patient "back to normal," Dr. Hovda said, "this may be the wrong thing to do."

Dr. Christopher Giza, UCLA associate professor of neurosurgery, said, "Our work is challenging because we're questioning a standard protocol. If the brain is actually asking for fuel (glucose), that means that after trauma, Mother Nature is shifting gears and changing the chemistry of the brain. These concepts and constructs are what we're going to be examining closely."

"The majority of head injuries are called mild traumatic brain injuries," Hovda said. "But what we've discovered is the path of physiological consequences measured in severe head injuries also occurs in mild traumatic head injuries as well. So this research might just change what's put in the IV bag at the onset of treatment."

Over the past 20 years there have been more than 75 clinical trials for traumatic brain injury but none have resulted in a standardized treatment.

Dr. Hovda expressed his hope by saying, "We wish there was a cure for TBI. But for now all that's available is rehabilitation therapy. Patients diagnosed with epilepsy or depression have medications that may help. But as of now there is no cocktail remedy for TBI. Our hope is to change that."

For additional information about rehabilitation programs, please visit Brain Injury Rehab.