Traumatic Brain Injury
THE SIGNATURE INJURY OF CURRENT CONFLICTS
raumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is recognized as the signature injury of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and has emerged as a significant challenge for the Department of Defense. According to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, more than 339,000 service members have been diagnosed with TBI since the year 2000. The extent of injury is very often hard to discern, making field diagnosis and medical treatment problematic.
Understanding this complex problem requires logging of exposure coupled with long-term tracking of soldier health to correlate blast exposure with injury. Wide deployment of sensors is critical to building a robust understanding of this problem and to enable better prediction of injury due to blast.
Percentage of injuries to one Marine unit in Iraq due to explosions—65% IEDs, 32% mines. *1*
Estimate of the percentage of military TBIs that were undocumented from 2003 – 2006. *2*
WHITE PAPERS
Traumatic Brain Injury in the NewsVIEW ALL
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The Journal of Neurotrauma publishes article on Combat Related mTBI
An article, receiving noteriety as the MHSRS 2014 approaches, looks at Combat Related mTBI and its correlation to PTSD.
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Troops’ Mental Health: How Much Is Unknown?
Gen. Peter Chiarelli spent the last couple years of his military career working to help troops returning from combat with invisible wounds of war like post-traumatic stress.
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Blast-Related Traumatic Brain Injury: What Is Known?
There is an increasing use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in terrorist and insurgent activities. Exposure to blast is becoming more frequent.
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Study: Nearby blasts may cause lasting damage without symptoms (USA TODAY)
A small scientific study of veterans exposed to bomb blasts while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan uncovered signs of lasting brain damage even in cases where there were no outward symptoms such as headaches, dizziness or confusion.
