AES annual meeting features special session on implications of combat-induced traumatic brain injury

A panel of medical experts will discuss the implications of combat-induced traumatic brain injury (TBI) today in an opening day session of the 64th American Epilepsy Society (AES) Annual Meeting here at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center. The session will focus on post traumatic seizure care from treatment on the battlefield to veteran hospitals and the civilian community.

Post-traumatic seizures and epilepsy can develop anytime from immediately to days or weeks to more than a decade after brain injury. Not all military personnel who have experienced combat-related TBI obtain care in the VA hospital system. Many integrate into civilian medical practice and receive care from healthcare professionals who might not recognize TBI as the cause of the epilepsy.

The special session on combat-induced TBI is to educate healthcare professionals attending the meeting on recognizing epilepsy in military personnel as well as civilians. The experts will also discuss the preferred practice for treatment of patients with epilepsy due to TBI.

Karen L. Parko, M.D., National Director of the newly established VA Epilepsy Centers of Excellence (ECoE) who works at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, will highlight the ECoE. The Centers were established through a congressional mandate in order to deliver the highest quality care to Veterans with epilepsy through a national network. The VA system currently treats more than 80,000 Veterans with epilepsy and this number is expected to dramatically increase due to the development of post traumatic epilepsy in combat personnel who have experienced TBI

Among topics being addressed are 1) seizure care on the battlefield; 2) DoD policy and clinical practice guidelines on treatment of seizures; 3) physics of blast injury and military models of blast research; and, 4) care of veterans in the new VA Epilepsy Centers of Excellence.

More than 4,000 healthcare professionals from around the world are in attendance at the AES meeting. Traumatic brain injury will be the topic of several other reports during the five-day scientific conference, including a presentation titled, "Continuous EEG Monitoring in Pediatric Moderate-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury," and a report on research of a biomarker for predicting the risk of seizures after TBI.