Copyright 2012 Medical News TodayLatest Health News and Medical News posted throughout the day, every day.http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/rehabilitation/admin@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Admin)editors@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Editors)en-us Wed, 16 May 2012 01:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/245440.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/245440.phpSurgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have restored some hand function in a quadriplegic patient with a spinal cord injury at the C7 vertebra, the lowest bone in the neck. Instead of operating on the spine itself, the surgeons rerouted working nerves in the upper arms. These nerves still "talk" to the brain because they attach to the spine above the injury...Rehabilitation / Physical Therapy Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/245292.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/245292.phpWith the aid of multiple force sensors and a digital dinosaur, a team of Rice University seniors known as Helping Hands hopes to restore strength and flexibility to the hands and wrists of children with cerebral palsy. "These kids have a real problem with their hands," said Jenna Desmarais, a senior at Rice majoring in mechanical engineering...IT / Internet / E-mail Thu, 10 May 2012 01:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/245175.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/245175.phpPeople walking normally, women tottering in high heels and ostriches strutting all exert the same forces on the ground despite very differently-shaped feet, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council...Rehabilitation / Physical Therapy Mon, 07 May 2012 00:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/245005.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/245005.phpResearch conducted at the University of Granada has demonstrated the efficiency of a heart rehabilitation program aimed at patients suffering from heart disease. The authors of this study affirm that it is essential that heart rehabilitation programs aimed at cardiac patients are established...Heart Disease Fri, 04 May 2012 01:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244957.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244957.phpWheelchair users with spinal cord injury (SCI) report very high rates of wheelchair breakdowns - and the problem is getting worse, suggests a study in American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (AJPM&R), the official journal of the Association of Academic Physiatrists, AJPM&R is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health...Rehabilitation / Physical Therapy Thu, 26 Apr 2012 01:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244570.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244570.phpNearly 8 of 10 Americans will experience lower back pain at some time in their lives. Persistent low back pain is a common, incapacitating, costly, and a difficult to treat condition. Many patients might benefit significantly from an individualized, multidisciplinary, team-based model of care that includes access to licensed complementary care practitioners (e.g...Back Pain Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244557.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244557.phpStanford University School of Medicine neuroscientists have demonstrated, in a study published online in Stroke, that a compound mimicking a key activity of a hefty, brain-based protein is capable of increasing the generation of new nerve cells, or neurons, in the brains of mice that have had strokes. The mice also exhibited a speedier recovery of their athletic ability...Stroke Wed, 25 Apr 2012 01:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244509.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244509.phpA CU School of Medicine researcher who suffers from benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) and had to "fix it" before she could go to work one day was using a maneuver to treat herself that only made her sicker. "So I sat down and thought about it and figured out an alternate way to do it. Then I fixed myself and went in to work" and discovered a new treatment for this type of vertigo...Ear, Nose and Throat Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244244.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244244.phpAn innovative 13-postures Tai Chi designed for wheelchair users is described in the current issue of Technology and Innovation- Proceedings of the National Academy of Inventors®...Medical Devices / Diagnostics Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244202.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244202.phpA new evaluation by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine of the physical rehabilitation response after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, finds that many hands didn't always make light work. Thousands of people became disabled during and after the 2010 earthquake, and physical rehabilitation interventions were crucial to the emergency response...Aid / Disasters Thu, 12 Apr 2012 01:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243998.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243998.phpA new supplement in the journal Cancer outlines an innovative model to address a wide range of physical issues faced by women with breast cancer and offers hope for improved function and full participation in life activities for patients through rehabilitation and exercise...Breast Cancer Wed, 11 Apr 2012 02:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243946.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243946.phpMore than 60 percent of breast cancer survivors report at least one treatment-related complication even six years after their diagnosis, according to a new study led by a researcher from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania...Breast Cancer Tue, 10 Apr 2012 02:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243887.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243887.phpStroke patients receiving in-patient rehabilitation are more likely to land back in the hospital within three months if they are functioning poorly, show signs of depression and lack social support according to researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston. Hospital readmission for older adults within 30 days of discharge costs Medicare roughly $18 billion annually...Stroke Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243727.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243727.phpOne of the most frustrating challenges for some stroke patients can be the inability to find and speak words even if they know what they want to say. Speech therapy is laborious and can take months. New research is seeking to cut that time significantly, with the help of non-invasive brain stimulation...Stroke Thu, 29 Mar 2012 02:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/243505.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/243505.php Researchers say a 3.4 million-year-old fossilized foot found in Ethiopia did not belong to a member of Australopithecus afarensis, the hominin species of our early upright-walking ancestor "Lucy", but to a tree-climbing hominin cousin with whom she and her relatives co-existed. They write about how they came to this conclusion in the 29 March online issue of Nature...Biology / Biochemistry Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243349.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243349.phpIn 2011, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) convened the Stroke Progress Review Group (SPRG) to conduct a final 10-year review of the state of stroke research. The goal is to set priorities and shape future NINDS programs and policies. While SPRG found much available data for maximizing stroke rehabilitation effects, translation to clinical practice is inadequate...Stroke Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243284.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243284.phpBelow is a news summary of an orthopaedic research study in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS), as well as the issues' full Table of Contents. A Structured, Independent Exercise Regimen Can Reduce the Need for Therapy Following Meniscus Surgery The treatment of meniscus tears in injured workers is associated with less favorable outcomes and higher utilization of clinical services...Bones / Orthopedics Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243042.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243042.phpStroke survivors who like art have a significantly higher quality of life than those who do not, according to new research. Patients who appreciated music, painting and theatre recovered better from their stroke than patients who did not. The research was presented at the 12th Annual Spring Meeting on Cardiovascular Nursing, in Copenhagen, Denmark...Stroke Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242760.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242760.phpThe number of people with neurological and psychiatric disorders in Spanish-speaking countries has increased over the past two decades. The February issue of NeuroRehabilitation assesses important factors that should be considered in rehabilitating Spanish-speaking individuals suffering from these disorders...Psychology / Psychiatry Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242761.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242761.phpInfants and toddlers who have been treated for cancer tend to reach certain developmental milestones later than do their healthy peers, say researchers at the National Institutes of Health and in Italy. The findings show that delays may occur early in the course of treatment and suggest that young children with cancer might benefit from such early interventions as physical or language therapy...Cancer / Oncology Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242489.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242489.phpOpening the door to the development of thought-controlled prosthetic devices to help people with spinal cord injuries, amputations and other impairments, neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Champalimaud Center for the Unknown in Portugal have demonstrated that the brain is more flexible and trainable than previously thought...Neurology / Neuroscience Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242288.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242288.phpWe make our eye movements earlier or later in order to coordinate with movements of our arms, New York University neuroscientists have found. Their study, which appears in the journal Neuron, points to a mechanism in the brain that allows for this coordination and may have implications for rehabilitation and prosthetics...Neurology / Neuroscience Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242002.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242002.phpIn a new study published in the March issue of Radiology, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows that cognitive rehabilitation changes brain function and improves cognitive performance in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS)...Multiple Sclerosis Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242004.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242004.phpSandia National Laboratories researchers, using off-the-shelf equipment in a chemistry lab, have been working on ways to improve amputees' control over prosthetics with direct help from their own nervous systems. Organic materials chemist Shawn Dirk, robotics engineer Steve Buerger and others are creating biocompatible interface scaffolds...Medical Devices / Diagnostics Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PDThttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241823.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241823.phpLoss of bone density leads to brittle bones that fracture easily. It is a major complication of spinal cord injury (SCI), which affects about 250,000 Americans every year...Bones / Orthopedics