Neurotrauma Division

The Department of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics' Neurotrauma Division encompasses the North Texas Traumatic Brain Injury Model System (NT-TBIMS). The TBI center is a collaboration between the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation and is funded by a grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. It pools the efforts and talents of individuals from the Departments of Neurosurgery, Neurology, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Psychiatry (Neuropsychiatry), and Neuroradiology at Baylor and UT Southwestern.

Research

Through clinical trials, the NT-TBIMS is seeking to learn more about TBI and about the issues and concerns of people with TBI with the goal of improving the outcome and quality of life for people who have had brain injuries. Researchers are currently conducting studies on multiple aspects of traumatic brain injury including the role genetic factors play in a patient’s outcome after traumatic brain injury and delayed cognitive deterioration in TBI survivors.

In addition to the work of the TBI Model system, the investigators are studying ways to develop effective therapies to maximize recovery from neurological deficits caused by central nervous system axon damages such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, and traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries. One of the research initiatives is funded by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation and is investigating novel regenerative therapeutics for spinal cord injury.

Clinical Programs

Parkland Memorial Hospital and Baylor University Medical Center are the region’s top Level I trauma centers and treat 90 percent of the trauma patients in the region. The majority of TBI patients require inpatient rehabilitation and are treated at one of our three rehabilitation units: Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation, the inpatient rehabilitation ward at Parkland, or the inpatient rehabilitation ward at Zale Lipshy University Hospital.