Veterans can have seizures decades after a head injury, study finds
It's unclear what can trigger the post-traumatic epilepsy, which can hit up to 35 years after a penetrating head wound. The long-term study looks at Vietnam veterans.
By Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Times
July 20, 2010
Soldiers who suffered brain injuries can develop seizures decades — as long as 35 years — after the initial injury, researchers have found.
A study published Tuesday in the journal Neurology found that among a group of 199 Vietnam veterans, about 13% developed post-traumatic epilepsy more than 14 years after they had suffered a penetrating head wound, such as a gunshot injury or shrapnel that entered brain tissue. Penetrating head injuries are generally linked with a higher risk for epilepsy than other types of head injuries, such as concussions.
Among the veterans, who are part of a long-term investigation called the Vietnam Head Injury Study, the overall rate of post-traumatic epilepsy was about 44%, consistent with similar military groups.
It is unclear what's responsible for the triggering of seizures so many years after a penetrating head injury, said study coauthor Jordan Grafman, chief of the Cognitive Neuroscience Section of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Md.
read more here
Veterans can have seizures decades after a head injury
Showing posts with label head wounds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label head wounds. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Thursday, February 7, 2008
U.S. helmet maker settles suit over helmets' quality
U.S. helmet maker settles suit over helmets' quality
By Bruce Lambert Published: February 6, 2008
A North Dakota manufacturer has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a suit alleging that it had repeatedly shortchanged the armor in up to 2.2 million helmets for the military, including helmets for the first troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Twelve days before the settlement with the Justice Department was announced, the company, Sioux Manufacturing of Fort Totten, was given a new contract of up to $74 million to make more armor for helmets to replace the old ones, which were made from the late 1980s to last year.
Sioux upgraded its looms in 2006, company executives say, and the government says it has started inspections at the plant.
The U.S. attorney for North Dakota, Drew Wrigley, called the accord "an appropriate resolution" because the Defense Department had said that 200 sample helmets passed ballistic tests and that it "has no information of injuries or deaths due to inadequate PASGT helmet protection."
PASGT stands for the Personal Armor System for Ground Troops, which includes the helmet model being replaced.
At the core of the investigation was the contention by two former plant managers that Kevlar woven at Sioux failed to meet the government's "critical" minimum standard of 35 by 35 threads a square inch, or 6.5 square centimeters.
When properly woven, Kevlar, a polymer thread made by DuPont, is stronger than steel, able to deflect shrapnel and some bullets.
Government regulations call for rejecting Kevlar below the 35-by-35 standard.
The company "was underweaving," Wrigley said. "That is undebatable."
go here for the rest
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/06/america/armor.php
How many head wounds could have been prevented if they were made right?
By Bruce Lambert Published: February 6, 2008
A North Dakota manufacturer has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a suit alleging that it had repeatedly shortchanged the armor in up to 2.2 million helmets for the military, including helmets for the first troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Twelve days before the settlement with the Justice Department was announced, the company, Sioux Manufacturing of Fort Totten, was given a new contract of up to $74 million to make more armor for helmets to replace the old ones, which were made from the late 1980s to last year.
Sioux upgraded its looms in 2006, company executives say, and the government says it has started inspections at the plant.
The U.S. attorney for North Dakota, Drew Wrigley, called the accord "an appropriate resolution" because the Defense Department had said that 200 sample helmets passed ballistic tests and that it "has no information of injuries or deaths due to inadequate PASGT helmet protection."
PASGT stands for the Personal Armor System for Ground Troops, which includes the helmet model being replaced.
At the core of the investigation was the contention by two former plant managers that Kevlar woven at Sioux failed to meet the government's "critical" minimum standard of 35 by 35 threads a square inch, or 6.5 square centimeters.
When properly woven, Kevlar, a polymer thread made by DuPont, is stronger than steel, able to deflect shrapnel and some bullets.
Government regulations call for rejecting Kevlar below the 35-by-35 standard.
The company "was underweaving," Wrigley said. "That is undebatable."
go here for the rest
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/06/america/armor.php
How many head wounds could have been prevented if they were made right?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)