TBI statistics in children

Traumatic brain injury (TBI), also called acquired brain injury or simply head injury, occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. TBI can result when the head suddenly and violently hits an object, or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue.

The term TBI is used for head injuries that can cause changes in one or more areas, such as:
- thinking and reasoning,
- understanding words,
- remembering things,
- paying attention,
- solving problems,
- thinking abstractly,
- talking,
- behaving,
- walking and other physical activities,
- seeing and/or hearing, and

- learning.

The term TBI is not used for a person who is born with a brain injury. It also is not used for brain injuries that happen during birth.

More than one million children receive brain injuries each year in the USA (almost half of all TBIs). More than 30,000 of these children have lifelong disabilities as a result of the brain injury.

Among children ages 0 to 14 years, TBI results in an estimated
- 2,685 deaths;
- 37,000 hospitalizations; and
- 435,000 emergency department visits.

These count only cases seen in an emergency department, but not with light damage.

• Individuals age 15 to 24 have the highest risk of TBI.
• Falls are the leading cause of TBI; rates are highest for children ages 0 to 4 years.
• The rate of motor vehicle-traffic-related TBI is highest among adolescents ages 15 to 19 years.

• Child abuse is the cause of 64% of all infant head injuries
• Approximately 1 in 500 school-age children each year receive a head injury severe enough to be hospitalized
• 1 million children sustain a head injury each year
• 165,000 children will be hospitalized due to a head injury
• 1 in 10 of those children hospitalized will suffer moderate to severe impairments

Source: Langlois JA, Rutland-Brown W, Thomas KE. Traumatic brain injury in the United States: emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths. Atlanta (GA): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nation Center for Injury Prevention and Control; 2006.

Kraus, J. F, and MacArthur, D. L. (1996) Epidemiologic Aspects of Brain Injury. Neurologic Clinics, 14(2): 435-450.

Not iPhone but BrainScope NT-1000

Very few claim that they know how to treat. Meanwhile, dozens say that know to diagnose. BrainScope is one of them. Their BrainScope NT-1000 (under development) is to diagnose traumatic brain injuries (TBI). It uses quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) that was popular in the 1930's, but not to-day. Nevertheless, BrainScopes says, that they develop other devices for detecting and diagnostics of (take a deep breath):

- stroke

- Alzheimer’s

- dementia

- depression

- seizure

- ADD

- autism and related conditions

- encephalopathy

- drug overdose

... and etc.

I do not know whether it really works, but want to try it and I have tens of ideas where to use. Firstly, of cause, to detect the effect of our method!

Museum pictures

The National Museum of Public Health has been uploading hundreds of incredible photos from its archives onto Flickr. Here below are some of them that I found to be of interest.

Improvised physical therapy equipment from 37th General Hospital -- Bagnoli. ~World War 2. 37th General Hospital.



World War 2 era.



Korean battle amputees learn to walk again with artificial limbs at the 3rd ROKA Annex Hospital, Pusan, Korea. Photo by Cpl. Alex Pobudinsky. 01/23/1952.



Prosthetic arm, at Walter Reed Hospital, possibly ca. 1950.


via Boingboing