Spinal Injuries

Published on: February 18, 2011

Motorcycle Helmets May Reduce Risk of Cervical Spine Injuries from Accidents

Atlanta motorcycle accident lawyers strongly recommend wearing a helmet to reduce your risks of suffering serious or fatal injury in a motorcycle accident. It’s common knowledge that wearing helmets reduces your risk of suffering a brain injury. A new study however shows that wearing a motorcycle helmet may have even more tangible benefits for persons involved in a motorcycle accident. The results of this study prove that wearing a helmet not only reduces the risk of brain injury, but also cervical spine injury.

Researchers at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine analyzed motorcycle accident collisions between 2002 and 2006. The data came from the National Trauma Data Bank. The researchers found that there was a substantially lowered risk of cervical spine injury among motorcyclists who wore helmets. The risk was as much as 22% lower compared to persons not wearing a helmet during a crash.

According to the researchers, this puts to rest a long-held misconception that wearing motorcycle helmets increases your risk of suffering a cervical spine injury. Critics of motorcycle helmet laws have long held that wearing helmets increases the risk of suffering a neck injury, and they often cite 25-year-old studies to support their arguments. The fact is that modern helmets are not just lighter and more sophisticated, but also come with added strength and complete protection.

Published on: December 13, 2010

Auto Accident Victims with Spinal Cord Injuries Find hope in Stem Cell Trial

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Spinal cord injuries, which frequently occur during auto accidents, truck accidents and motorcycle accidents, are one of the most life-altering injuries. There is no complete cure for spinal cord injuries, but there have been very encouraging developments in possible therapies for spinal cord injury, all of them involving the use of stem cells. A California-based company has announced that it has received approval to begin nerve stem cell trials into the treatment of spinal cord injury. This study provides a reason for hope for auto accident victims who suffered this injury.

The trials will be conducted in Switzerland. Researchers believe that the country offers greater patient referral networks and a higher expertise of professionals. However, that isn’t only how these stem cell trials will differ from others. These are believed to be the first trials that will focus on treatment of older or chronic spinal cord injuries.

Earlier this year, another company, Geron Corporation announced the world’s first embryonic stem cell clinical trials into the treatment of spinal cord injuries. Those trials are partly being conducted in Atlanta. However, those trials will only focus on new spinal cord injuries. These Swiss trials will focus on injuries that are between three and 12 months older, and if these treatments are successful, it will offer hope to the more than 2 million spinal cord injury patients in the US, who currently live with these injuries. The Swiss trial researchers believe that older spinal cord injuries have been ignored, and too much of the research is focused on fresh injuries.

Published on: July 21, 2010

Spinal Cord Injury Patients to Benefit from New Technology

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

It’s not just wireless companies and commercial television stations that are in the way of a revolutionary new technology that could provide a cure for spinal cord injury. The promoters of the cure are also up against the military. However, that’s not stopping the nonprofit Alfred Mann Foundation from continuing its efforts towards a treatment.

The treatment involves the use of coordinated electrical impulses from implanted devices. These impulses stimulate the muscles, thereby allowing the limbs of the spinal cord injury victim to move. Initial tests have shown dramatic results in spinal cord injury victims. Some of them have not just been able to regain movement, but are now back to doing the things they did and enjoyed before they suffered the injury.Buoyed by these successes, the Alfred Mann Foundation is pushing for wider use of this technology.

There’s one major catch, however. In order for the signals to be transmitted properly within the human body, the technology requires electromagnetic spectrum. The four bands of recommended bandwidth that are ideally suited for the technology are currently occupied by the military, commercial land mobile radio and emergency mobile radio. None of these entities are keen to share their bandwidth with the application of a medical device.

Published on: June 29, 2010

Spinal Cord Injury Treatment Comes from Unlikely Source

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

American and Japanese researchers have found a potential treatment for spinal cord injury from an unexpected source-mice hair. This week, researchers unveiled their new discovery at the World Congress for Hair Research in Australia.

Researchers stumbled on this astounding discovery by accident. They were examining the skin of mice while researching cancer treatments at the Anti Cancer research lab in San Diego in California. They discovered that mice hair contained cells that, if placed on damaged nerves, could repair these nerves. Researchers used the mice hair to rejoin damaged nerves in mice with a spinal injury. At the conference, a video was shown of a mouse with a spinal injury, recuperating almost completely after being treated with hair cells.

There is enough reason to hope that this treatment can be duplicated in human beings too. Human hair has been found to contain similar cells that have equally beneficial results when used on mice with spinal cord injuries. Researchers believe that chances are high that a damaged human nerve will also respond well to the same kind of hair cell treatment.