Brain & Nervous System

Soft tissue head injuries can play havoc with a life. The patient sometimes loses certain cognitive or physical skills, which can be frustrating for the patient and the patient's family. Treatment...

Parkinson's disease occurs when brain cells that produce dopamine become impaired. Once the dopamine level production in the body drops to a certain level there is substantial damage to the...

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. In order to deal with TBI, it's...

The cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) is an essential measure of how well a patient is doing in many situations, such as when undergoing surgery or recovering from a brain injury. A CPP of 70 mm...

Stroke patients often have a loss of mobility on one side of the body. It is important to start a thorough exercise routine as soon as a patient is able to improve coordination between the two...

Cerebral palsy (CP) encompasses a broad range of physically disabling motor conditions. Although it has no cure, a variety of treatments can allow people to live a fairly normal life.. Many times,...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a debilitating disorder that attacks the brain. A patient suffering from PD finds it difficult to control the movements of his body, even simple actions like walking,...

Nerve pain in the body can either be chronic or acute. It can also be mild, moderate or severe. There are no tests available that will give a doctor a definitive nerve pain diagnosis. When doctors...

Neuropathy is the medical term for nerve pain. Before neuropathy can be diagnosed, a patient must undergo testing. There are several different tests that can be performed to diagnose neuropathy....

The Glasgow Coma Scale is a common scoring system that physicians and emergency responders use to asses a patient's mental consciousness. The test is based on a 15-point scoring scale. Lower...

Currently, there are at least 5.3 million Americans living with a disability because of a brain injury. The estimated lifetime costs of brain injury (including direct medical costs and indirect...

According to the Brain Injury Association, a traumatic brain injury is described as an injury to the head that affects brain function. The severity of a brain injury can be mild, with a change in...

The Glasgow Coma Scale was created in 1974 to attempt to objectively assess injuries to the head or the brain. Through a series of tests that measure a patient's reaction to various types of...

A pair of professors at the University of Glasgow developed the Glasgow Coma Scale in 1974. The scale was the first to provide doctors with a system to quickly assess the seriousness of brain and...

The cervical spine is the area of the spine in the neck. Cervical spine surgery is most often performed to treat an unstable cervical spine or a pinched nerve in that area. This surgery is...

Epilepsy is a type of neurological disorder in which people have sudden seizures. Seizures are neurological "storms" of electrical activity in the brain in which the patient stiffens, has...

There are a variety of therapies available for cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects body movement and muscle coordination. An increasingly popular one being prescribed by...

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to produce images. These pictures provide much more detail than traditional x-rays or CT scans. The test provides a...

Huntington's disease is a genetic neurological (brain) disorder in which neurons (nerve cells) degenerate, causing impairment of movement and mental ability and psychiatric disturbances, with...

Dementia is not a disease. It is a medical term that refers to a group of distinct symptoms. Dementia is the slow deterioration of mental functions. It has adverse effects on the performance of...

Our brain is responsible for managing the essential functions of our body. It does so through electrical activity that takes place within it. If this activity becomes abnormal, a person has a...

Dementia is part of the aging process known as atrophy (in which brain tissue shrinks in size) and can be caused by damage or destroyed brain cells called neurons. Since it is a progressive...

Hemaplegic migraines are uncommon, but a first experience with one can be quite frightening--not only for the person experiencing the migraine, but for their family and friends as well. A...

Quadriplegia is a debilitating condition that can occur after a traumatic accident that caused spinal cord damage. It is also known as tetraplegia and affects all four limbs of a person's body. ...

A closed head trauma is one of the most serious conditions one can face. It means the brain is injured, while the head and skull are still intact. The brain swells and presses against the skull....

An inherited disease, Huntington’s usually shows up during a patient’s middle-age years. A progressively degenerative condition, early symptoms may include sudden jerking and...

Huntington's disease is a inherited, degenerative disease that attacks the nerve cells in the brain. The patient usually experience mental deterioration, uncontrolled movements and emotional...

Exercising with cerebral palsy is not only good for the patient but in most cases it is absolutely essential for the well-being of the patient and for loosening the muscles which can be very...

As a passenger in a car accident when I was 15 years old, I have come to realize more than a decade later that this was a defining moment for my life. I was unconscious for 19 days and suffered...

There are three kinds of ataxia. The first is called hereditary ataxia; often found in children and is passed down genetically. The second type is sporadic ataxia, developing later in life with no...

Also known as motor aphasia, Broca's aphasia occurs when a patient suffers damage to the frontal lobe of the brain that controls language skills. As a result, people afflicted with Broca's aphasia...

Broca's aphasia occurs when a patient suffers a brain injury that results in damage to the frontal brain lobe that controls language capabilities. As a result, patients encounter extreme...