Soon after a severe brain injury, the damaged brain suffers from depolarizations, or ‘brain tsunamis’ that result in an increase in the real and severity of the injury, and contribute to poor patient outcomes. Patients with a severe brain injury may, therefore, be helped through treatments that can help block these ‘tsunamis’ as they occur. A new study confirms this phenomenon, and aims to lay the groundwork for the development of treatments to prevent depolarizations.

Previous studies have indicated to Los Angeles brain injury lawyers that a person who suffers a serious head injury may suffer from a phenomenon called cortical spreading depolarization. Short-circuiting in the nerve cells of the brain, which are responsible for storing of electrical and chemical energy, can lead to the malfunctioning and short-circuiting of other cells in the brain. The resulting effect is a tsunami-like phenomenon that can damage brain tissues, and reduce the chances of a full recovery for the patient. This effect intensifies the impact of the injury, and leads to a poor patient outcome.

Researchers from the United Kingdom and the US studied 103 patients who required brain surgery after suffering a head injury. During the surgery, the researchers attached a strip of electrodes near the area of the brain that had suffered the injury. They found that out of the 103 patients in the study, 58% suffered these brain tsunamis.

The researchers have now confirmed that these depolarizations severely impact the person's ability to recover after z brain injury. They believe that this evidence can be used to develop treatments to block the appearance of these depolarizations. If researchers can come up with a way to block these killer waves in the brain in the days after an injury, they can help limit the severity of the brain injury and its long-term impact. Patient outcomes could be improved substantially.