More than 20 nationally recognized experts in neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry, neuropsychology, critical care, rehabilitation medicine and trauma surgery are gathering at Johns Hopkins to discuss advances in traumatic brain injury (TBI) research.

This year’s Continuing Medical Education (CME) program, which builds on the 2010 conference that focused on head injury in professional football, will provide an evidence-based perspective of TBI and will include a focus on our injured troops.  Topics will include methods of measuring effects of injury on the brain, long-term clinical effects and mechanisms of recovery.  

“The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have brought this problem to the forefront of public attention, with a significant number of soldiers sustaining brain injuries that reduce their quality of life,” says conference co-director and Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Vani Rao, M.D.

To unravel the pathobiology of brain injury and processes governing repair, the Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute (BSi) has created interdisciplinary working groups across Johns Hopkins University to develop a comprehensive approach to understand, diagnose and treat TBI.  

“While the understanding of TBI has grown, significant gaps exist in our understanding of its underlying mechanisms,” stated conference co-director and Johns Hopkins neurointensivist Robert Stevens, M.D.

According to one of the conference speakers, Johns Hopkins neuropathologist Vassilis Koliatsos, M.D., approximately 160,000 American veterans have sustained traumatic brain injury resulting from explosive blasts from mines, grenades and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and this type of damage now accounts for more than 80 percent of all brain injuries among U.S. troops.  

Koliatsos and Ibolja Cernak, M.D., medical director at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, have published data suggesting that stronger and tougher body armor on the could better protect the brain because some of the destructive blast energy is mediated through structures that extend from the chest into the neck.

The all-day CME program titled Johns Hopkins Traumatic Brain Injury, A National Conference: From Impact to Recovery, will be held Sat., May 21, from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Thomas B. Turner Building located on 720 Rutland Avenue.

For additional information

TBI conference
https://hopkinscme.cloud-cme.com

Shielding Body Protects Brain From “Shell Shocking” Blast Injuries
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/shielding_body_protects_brain_from_shell_shocking_blast_injuries