Active clinical trials for "Brain Injuries, Traumatic"

Children suffer proportionally more head injuries than any other age group and children with head injuries have the highest mortality of all children admitted with traumatic injuries. The investigators aim to investigate the factors that contribute to poor outcomes after paediatric acute brain injury by collecting observational and outcome data. Much of the brain damage that results in poor outcomes actually happens in the hours and days after the injury. This is due to several factors such as brain swelling and poor oxygen delivery to the brain. Treatment is directed to try and protect the brain against these factors. Current management of the head injured child focuses on monitoring pressure within the head. However, this does not detect all the factors that cause continuing brain damage. Special monitors that follow oxygen levels and chemical changes in the brain are used safely in adult patients but have not been widely employed in children despite their potential benefit. There is therefore the opportunity to evaluate extra monitoring of the child brain, and in doing so, help refine the management of these patients.

The goal of this observational study is to learn about changes in the brain of patients over the first 3 years following a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The main question it aims to answer are: - How TBI effect the rate of brain tissue loss compare to healthy brain Participants will give blood samples, complete MRI scans, and neuropsychological assessment measures. Researchers will compare results between healthy control group and TBI group to determine changes in injured brains.

Aim: Investigate whether patients undergoing specialist rehabilitation after complex neurological injury show different functional outcomes if music therapy is included in their rehabilitation program compared to usual care. Background: Patients with complex needs following a brain, spinal cord, and/or peripheral nerve injury often require a period of specialist neurorehabilitation. This involves multiple therapy disciplines, led by a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine, Neurology, or Neuropsychiatry. Although music therapy is suggested to enhance neuroplasticity and recovery in patients with brain injury, it is not routinely commissioned in clinical care due to a lack of supportive evidence. Hypothesis: Patients undergoing music therapy in addition to complex specialist rehabilitation show better functional outcomes compared to usual care. Number of participants: 75, aged 16-80 years. Methods: Patients undergo baseline assessments and are randomised to MUSIC or CONTROL Therapy. Both arms receive 1-3 additional therapy sessions per week, matched for duration and number, total 15 hours. After approximately 10-weeks intervention, assessments are repeated. All participants then have access to music therapy until they are discharged from Neurorehabilitation Unit (NRU), with additional qualitative data collection using semi-structured interviews, field notes, staff reports, staff stress surveys, and broader ecological observations. Duration for Participants: From consent to discharge from NRU. Primary Outcome: Change in Functional Independence Measure+Functional Assessment Measure (FIM+FAM), Northwick Park Dependency Scale (NWPDS), and Barthel Activities of Daily Living pre and post 15 hours intervention. Secondary Outcome: Change in quality of life (Flourishing Scale), psychological distress (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Depression Intensity Scale Circles), social interaction (Sickness Impact Profile Social Interaction Subscale), well-being (WHO Well-Being Index), and communication (Communication Outcomes After Stroke Scale), pre and post 15 hours intervention. Mean difference in well-being (WHO Well-Being Index) throughout the intervention period between music therapy and control therapy groups. Mean difference in post-intervention pain and mood visual analogue scores between music therapy and control therapy groups.

The goal of this clinical trial is to compare pregnenolone and placebo (a placebo is a look-alike substance that contains no active drug) in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND)-Era Veterans with a history of chronic Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The main questions it aims to answer are: Does pregnenolone improve psychological health, overall physical function, cognition, symptoms of PTSD, and pain more than placebo over the 8-week study period, and what is the most effective dose of the drug that is safe and well-tolerated? What are the biological effects of pregnenolone, and how do pregnenolone and other molecules change over the course of treatment? (and do pregnenolone and other molecules predict clinical improvement?) Participants who are eligible and consent to participate in the study will: be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to take pregnenolone or placebo be given pregnenolone or placebo to take each day at home will participate in 6 visits over 11 weeks for tests, exams and procedures that are for study purposes (each visit will last 1.5 - 3 hours) be evaluated at each visit to determine if there are any bad reactions to the study drug and if study participation is still appropriate be financially compensated for their visit time and travel cost

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about treatment with fresh frozen plasma (FFP) in individuals with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury. The two main question[s]it aims to answer are: Is the FFP treatment safe? Does the FFP treatment impact the 24-hour and 6-month outcomes, intensive-care free days, mortality, and hospital brain and physical function at discharge. Patients with moderate to severe TBI will randomly receive either: Standard of care treatment Standard of care treatment + 2 units of FFP. Researchers will compare participants receiving standard of care treatment to those receiving experimental fresh frozen plasma (FFP) treatment to see if the FFP is safe and beneficial to participant outcomes.

Over the last years a rising medical need for treatment of chronic pain was identified. Based on previous findings indicating the pain modulating effects of cannabinoids in chronic pain disorders, this clinical trial investigates the long term efficacy and tolerability of the THC-focused nano endocannabinoid system modulator AP707 in patients with chronic pain disorders due to central neuropathy of any genesis. Patients receive AP707 or placebo over the course of 14 weeks as an add-on to the standard of care. Changes in pain intensity, quality of life and sleep and others measures are monitored through different scales to assess the efficacy of AP707 in patients with chronic pain due to central neuropathy of any genesis.

The use of serum biomarkers in the setting of the emergency department (ED) has been well characterized over the years as an adjunctive tool for the clinician in the setting of complex decision making. In this regard, the serum dosage of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) has been evaluated in a series of successful multicenter prospective studies as a potentially useful marker of, respectively, glial and neuronal damage in the setting of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), which is defined as a brain injury (concussion) secondary to trauma with a GCS (Glasgow coma scale) score of 13-15. It seems that both markers are detectable in serum less than 1 hour after the traumatic event, with highest levels appearing at around 2 hours, and are capable of distinguishing between patients with traumatic brain injury from those without acute brain injury after trauma. Furthermore, they seem to possess a high negative predictive value for detection of intracranial injuries at head CT-scan as well as the need of neurosurgical intervention after head trauma. Mild traumatic brain injury is one of the most frequent chief-complaints for patients presenting to emergency departments worldwide. At present, head CT scan is the gold standard diagnostic test for the identification of potentially life-threatening intra-cranial injuries. Although effective in the identification of serious lesions which might require neurosurgical intervention or in-hospital prolonged observation, the extensive use of head CT scan in mTBI has been questioned due to the potential risks related to radiation exposure, as well as unnecessary deployment of ED resources and increased costs, considering that the prevalence of CT-detected intra-cranial injury in mTBI is around 5-10%. For this reason, a number of international clinical guidelines suggest several Clinical Decision Rules (CDR) and algorithms to guide the clinician in the correct management of these patients, in particular in the difficult feat of identifying those patients who don't need to perform neuroradiological evaluation (CT scan or MRI) in the setting of the ED, without the risk to overlook potentially fatal brain injuries. The adjunctive role of these biomarkers has been well characterized in the setting of mTBI. It seems they correlate well with neurological damage as well as with the presence of CT abnormalities, and it seems that they might perform better than clinical evaluation alone. Nonetheless, according to current international guidelines and several systematic reviews and meta-analysis, patients who present with mTBI and risk factors for bleeding and delayed bleeding (such as known coagulopathy, patients on blood thinners or advanced age), need to perform CT scan plus clinical observation or even serial CT scans when the risk of delayed bleeding is considered to be high according to clinical evaluation of the ED physician and according to local standard-of-care and clinical practice. The execution of serial CT scans can be time consuming, expensive for the health-care services, and might pose a significant radiological risk for patients; furthermore, this risk might be unjustified considering that the prevalence of development of late intra-cranial bleeding in patients with risk factors who perform a second head CT scan during observation in the ED is considered to be around 2%. Nonetheless, in this category of patients, clinical observation and the repetition of a second head CT scan is felt to be the safest course of action for patients in order not to overlook potentially fatal injuries. Ideally, a clinical decision algorithm which takes into consideration a serum biomarker with a high negative predictive value for brain injury might aid the clinician to reduce the number of useless CT scans, therefore reducing the observation time in the ED as well as the exposure to ionizing radiations for the patients, while not increasing the number of missed delayed bleedings. At present, the role of GFAP and UCH-L1 in the risk stratification of patients with risk factors for delayed cerebral bleeding after mTBI has not been evaluated yet.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) continues to be a major cause of death and disability throughout the world. The reduced cerebral blood flow secondary to the direct trauma-induced damage deregulates cerebral metabolism and depletes energy stores within the brain. Diffusion barriers to the cellular delivery of oxygen develop and persist. Besides, TBI often leads to intracranial hypertension, which in turn exacerbates diffusion disorders, further reducing cerebral oxygenation, and deteriorates the injury. By increasing the partial pressure of oxygen in blood, reducing intracranial pressure and cerebral edema, Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO2) has been used in early treatment of TBI. However, due to the different severity of TBI, the clinical situation of early insult is complex and unpredictable, ordinarily there was a time delay between TBI and onset of HBO2 treatment averaging more than 2 weeks, especially in patients with severe TBI. Whether the delayed intervention is still effective is controversial.

to examine the relationship between repeated concussions and late decline of brain function. In addition, all participants agreeing to participate in the study will be asked to will their brains to The Krembil Neuroscience Centre Concussion Project at the Toronto Western Hospital with the consent and full knowledge of their families and doctors. However, it is possible to participate in the research without agreeing to a brain donation. The Project Team is specifically attempting a clinical-MRI-brain tissue research analysis to determine the exact mechanism of the damage to brain tissue following repeated concussions. This condition is known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and shows an abnormal protein in the brain called tau-protein.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) accounts for approximately 2.5 million visits to emergency departments in the United States each year. After decades of research, management strategies for severe TBI (sTBI) patients are still evolving. Optimizing intracranial pressure (ICP) and cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) are paramount in the management of these patients and placement of these monitors is the current standard-of-care. However, monitoring brain oxygenation (PbtO2) with invasive intraparenchymal monitors is currently under investigation in the management of severe TBI and placement of these monitors is gaining widespread use. This has opened the door for the use of tiered therapy to optimize ICP and PbtO2 simultaneously. Current evidence indicates that correction of ICP, CPP and PbtO2 in sTBI requires optimized analgesia and sedation. Ketamine is one of the few drugs available that has both sedative and analgesic properties and does not commonly compromise respiratory drive like opioids and sedative-hypnotics. However, traditionally, ketamine has been viewed as contraindicated in the setting of TBI due to concerns for elevation in ICP. Yet, new data has cast this long-held assumption into significant doubt. Hence the present pilot study will characterize the neurophysiological response to a single dose of ketamine in critically-ill TBI patient with ICP and PbtO2 monitoring.