MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital
Faculty provides care for thousands suffering from mild to traumatic brain injuries. The concussion clinic at Medstar NRH focuses primarily on this form of brain injury and is regarded as one of the best in the country according to U.S. News & World Report. 75 percent of all traumatic brain injuries that occur are concussions. Traumatic brain injuries contribute to a third of all deaths in the United States with over 1.5 million brain injuries occurring each year. During their stay, patients are also educated on precautions they can take to prevent a future incidence.
Neural stem cell
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can deform the brain tissue, leading to necrosis primary damage which can then cascade and activate secondary damage such as excitotoxicity, inflammation, ischemia, and the breakdown of the blood-brain-barrier. Damage can escalate and eventually lead to apoptosis or cell death. Current treatments focus on preventing further damage by stabilizing bleeding, decreasing intracranial pressure and inflammation, and inhibiting pro-apoptoic cascades. In order to repair TBI damage, an upcoming therapeutic option involves the use of NSCs derived from the embryonic peri-ventricular region. Stem cells can be cultured in a favorable 3-dimensional, low cytotoxic environment, a hydrogel, that will increase NSC survival when injected into TBI patients. The intracerebrally injected, primed NSCs were seen to migrate to damaged tissue and differentiate into oligodendrocytes or neuronal cells that secreted neuroprotective factors.