Concussion Evaluation and Treatment in Kansas City
Concussion Treatment
At Keystone Medical Group, our comprehensive concussion evaluations provide an in-depth understanding of each patient’s specific needs and symptoms, with a focus on personal injury cases. After gathering detailed insights from these evaluations, we develop a tailored treatment plan to address the unique challenges each concussion presents. This individualized approach ensures that every aspect of a patient’s injury is considered, including balance, coordination, cognitive function, and physical rehabilitation. Our treatment plans incorporate a range of therapies designed to promote effective recovery and reduce the lasting impacts of a concussion.
Our treatment options include specialized physical therapy focusing on balance, coordination, and functional restoration. We also utilize novel therapies, including acellular nanoparticle (ANP) therapy, developed by Dr. Buechner, to support the body’s natural healing processes. Dr. Buechner also reviews all DTI scans, helping guide therapy decisions for patients with personal injury-related brain injuries. Exercise With Oxygen Therapy (EWOT) is another component of our approach, enhancing cellular recovery and supporting symptom management. Each component of the treatment plan is carefully chosen to address a patient’s unique symptoms, ensuring a holistic and focused approach to concussion care.
Lance Stevenson has developed the CORE program, which provides a structured, multi-system approach to concussion rehabilitation. The CORE program integrates physical, cognitive, vestibular, and ocular-motor therapies to help patients regain function and return to daily life as safely and efficiently as possible.
What to Expect
During your time with us, you can expect a comprehensive and supportive experience, guiding you through each phase of care. Treatment sessions are generally scheduled weekly or bi-weekly, depending on your needs and response to therapy. Between visits, we provide at-home exercises and activities designed to reinforce progress and fit into your daily routine.
Education is central to our approach. We explain each step of the treatment process, including why certain therapies are recommended and how to manage symptoms at home. Concussions from personal injury events can bring uncertainty, and our goal is to offer reassurance, answer questions, and ensure that every patient feels fully supported and informed throughout their recovery.
Patient Education
Patient education is a core element of our concussion care. We believe that understanding the nature of a concussion and its impact on the body is essential to effective treatment. During in-person consultations, our team explains your diagnosis in straightforward, relatable terms to ensure you fully grasp how your unique symptoms relate to the injury.
In addition to these discussions, we provide detailed handouts and resources focused on concussion care. These materials cover the healing process, common symptoms, and practical tips for managing them between visits, offering you a helpful guide when questions arise. By emphasizing education, we empower you to take an active role in your treatment plan, which is vital for improving outcomes. This knowledge helps you feel more confident and informed, enabling you to better support your own recovery.
We also encourage open communication, inviting patients and their families to ask questions at any point throughout their care. This interactive approach allows us to address any specific concerns you may have and adapt our guidance as your understanding and needs evolve. We tailor our educational materials to each individual, ensuring that every aspect of the concussion and its effects are clearly explained.
Whether you’re learning about symptom management, safe activity levels, or the importance of rest, our goal is to give you the tools and knowledge you need to navigate each stage of recovery with confidence. By combining in-person guidance, take-home resources, and ongoing support, we ensure that every patient has a well-rounded understanding of their condition, empowering them to play an active role in their treatment.
At-Home Exercises and Activities for Concussions
We provide a range of at-home activities designed to support your progress and manage concussion symptoms. These activities are carefully selected based on your specific needs and symptoms, allowing you to continue your treatment outside of the clinic. From balance exercises to cognitive tasks, each activity is designed to reinforce the work we do together in therapy and help you stay engaged in the healing process.
We understand that every concussion is unique, so the at-home exercises we assign are tailored to your current abilities and recovery goals. These activities may include gentle physical exercises to improve coordination, relaxation techniques to reduce symptoms, or specific cognitive exercises to help with memory and focus. By doing these exercises at home, you can maintain momentum and gradually build strength in a safe, controlled way.
In addition to physical exercises, we also provide guidance on how to monitor and adjust your daily activities to avoid exacerbating symptoms. Whether it’s taking breaks, managing screen time, or pacing activities, we ensure you have the tools to make informed decisions about your daily routine. This personalized approach to at-home care helps you stay on track with your treatment and provides a sense of empowerment as you actively contribute to your recovery.
Habituation is an important part of your treatment, especially if you’re experiencing sensitivities to things like light, sound, or movement after your concussion. It involves gradually exposing your brain to these stimuli in a controlled way, helping it adapt and reduce the intensity of your symptoms over time. By doing this, we can help your brain re-learn how to handle these triggers without becoming overwhelmed. This process is key to managing symptoms like dizziness, headaches, and sensitivity to light or noise. As you work through habituation exercises, your tolerance to normal activities and environments will improve, allowing you to feel more comfortable and confident as you return to your daily routine.
Regenerative Medicine for Concussion Recovery
Regenerative medicine is an evolving field that shows great promise for individuals recovering from traumatic brain injuries (TBI). These therapies focus on supporting healing at the cellular level, aiming to reduce neuroinflammation and enhance the brain’s natural recovery processes. By addressing both the immediate effects of TBI and supporting long-term rehabilitation, regenerative approaches offer a comprehensive path toward neurological restoration.
At Keystone Medical Group, we integrate novel regenerative therapies into our concussion treatment plans. One such therapy is acellular nanoparticle (ANP) therapy, which is a focus of research led by Dr. David Buechner, a recognized expert in TBI care. Dr. Buechner’s work explores how this innovative therapy can support recovery and improve outcomes for patients with brain injuries.
By combining novel regenerative therapies with structured physical, cognitive, and mental health rehabilitation, we provide a comprehensive, individualized approach to concussion care. These advanced therapies give patients access to cutting-edge treatment options designed to promote recovery, enhance function, and improve overall quality of life following a brain injury.
Cognitive Rehabilitation for Concussions
After a personal injury concussion, many patients experience challenges with memory, concentration, information processing, and problem-solving. These cognitive difficulties can make it harder to return to work, manage daily tasks, or participate in normal life activities.
At Keystone Medical Group, we offer a structured cognitive rehabilitation program designed to target these specific areas. Using computer-based exercises, patients work on memory retention, attention span, processing speed, and executive functioning. The program adapts to each patient’s performance, gradually increasing difficulty to challenge the brain and promote measurable improvements.
The therapy also emphasizes strategy development. Patients learn techniques to organize information, improve focus, and apply problem-solving skills to daily situations. This approach helps bridge the gap between clinical exercises and real-life functioning, allowing patients to regain confidence in their cognitive abilities.
Cognitive rehabilitation is integrated with other components of concussion care, including physical therapy, balance and vestibular training, and mental health support. By addressing cognitive deficits alongside physical and emotional recovery, our program provides a comprehensive path to restoring overall brain function and quality of life after a concussion.
Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy (VRT)
Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy (VRT) is a specialized form of physical therapy designed to address balance and dizziness problems, often resulting from conditions like concussions or inner ear disorders. VRT focuses on retraining the brain to compensate for deficits in the vestibular system, which controls balance and spatial orientation. The goal of therapy is to reduce symptoms of vertigo, dizziness, and imbalance while improving overall stability and coordination.
VRT includes a series of personalized exercises that target the vestibular system, helping the brain and body relearn how to process sensory information from the inner ear and other parts of the body. Some of the key components of VRT include:
Gaze stabilization exercises: These exercises help improve the ability to keep the eyes focused on an object while the head is in motion, addressing issues such as blurred vision and dizziness.
Balance and coordination exercises: These exercises are designed to improve stability and coordination by challenging the body’s ability to maintain balance in different postures and environments.
Habituation exercises: These exercises expose the body to movements or situations that trigger dizziness, allowing the brain to adapt and reduce sensitivity to those triggers over time.
VRT is tailored to each individual, with exercises progressing in intensity as the patient improves. Over time, VRT helps reduce dizziness, improve balance, and allow patients to return to their daily activities with greater confidence and stability. It is an essential part of concussion rehabilitation, addressing both the physical and neurological aspects of dizziness and balance issues caused by head injuries.
Exercise with Oxygen Therapy (EWOT)
Exercise With Oxygen Therapy (EWOT) is an innovative approach that combines physical activity with breathing concentrated oxygen. During an EWOT session, patients perform low- to moderate-intensity exercises, such as walking, cycling, or gentle aerobic movements, while inhaling oxygen through a mask or hood. This combination increases oxygen levels in the blood, improving circulation and enhancing cellular function throughout the body, including the brain.
For individuals recovering from concussions, EWOT is particularly beneficial because traumatic brain injuries often reduce cerebral blood flow and oxygen delivery to brain tissue. These deficits can contribute to fatigue, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, and slower healing. By increasing oxygen availability, EWOT helps restore proper cerebral oxygenation, supporting neuronal function and promoting recovery at a cellular level.
In addition to supporting cognitive function, EWOT can improve energy levels, reduce neuroinflammation, and enhance overall brain metabolism. This therapy also helps the brain process information more efficiently, which may improve focus, attention, and mental clarity. When used as part of a comprehensive concussion treatment plan alongside physical therapy, cognitive rehabilitation, and regenerative medicine, EWOT plays a key role in accelerating recovery, optimizing brain health, and helping patients regain their daily function more effectively.
Oculomotor Rehabilitation
Oculomotor rehabilitation is a therapeutic approach focused on improving the function of the eye muscles and the coordination between the eyes and brain, particularly after a concussion or other head injuries. When a concussion occurs, the brain’s ability to coordinate eye movements can be disrupted, leading to symptoms such as blurry vision, difficulty focusing, double vision, and eye strain. Oculomotor rehabilitation targets these issues by strengthening and retraining the eye muscles, improving the brain’s ability to process visual information, and enhancing the overall efficiency of the visual system.
The rehabilitation process typically involves a series of exercises designed to improve various aspects of eye function, including eye tracking, eye teaming, focus flexibility, and convergence (the ability of both eyes to focus on a single point). Smooth pursuit exercises are a key component of oculomotor rehab, where patients practice following a moving target with their eyes in a smooth, controlled manner. This helps improve the ability to track moving objects without losing focus, which is essential for tasks like reading, driving, and sports activities.
In addition to smooth pursuits, saccadic exercises help improve the ability to quickly shift focus from one target to another, which is crucial for reading and other daily tasks. Convergence exercises strengthen the ability of the eyes to work together to focus on objects at close distances, while accommodation exercises help improve the ability to adjust focus between near and far objects.
By improving the coordination between the eyes and brain, oculomotor rehabilitation can help reduce symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, and difficulty concentrating, enabling individuals to return to normal activities with greater comfort and stability. These exercises are an important part of concussion recovery and play a key role in addressing the visual disturbances commonly experienced after a brain injury.
Gaze Stabilization Exercises
Gaze stabilization exercises are an essential part of Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy (VRT) and play a critical role in helping individuals with concussions or other vestibular disorders regain control over their eye movements. After a concussion, the vestibular system, which helps coordinate balance and eye movements, may not function properly, causing difficulties with vision stability and balance. Gaze stabilization exercises focus on improving the ability to keep the eyes fixed on an object while moving the head, which is key to maintaining clear vision and preventing dizziness or blurring. These exercises also help re-establish the brain’s ability to process visual and vestibular information together, improving overall sensory integration.
One common exercise is X1 Viewing, where patients focus on a stationary target while moving their head from side to side or up and down, progressively increasing speed and range of motion to challenge the system. Another variation, X2 Viewing, adds complexity by having the target move in the opposite direction of the head, challenging the brain to track moving objects while maintaining visual stability. VOR (Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex) Exercises target the reflex that stabilizes vision during head movement, promoting the ability to maintain visual focus even when the head is in motion. Eye/Head Coordination exercises focus on improving the coordination between eye and head movements, which is crucial for smooth and controlled actions, such as reading or navigating crowded spaces.
By regularly performing these exercises, patients can enhance their ability to maintain visual focus, reduce dizziness, and improve coordination. This leads to better stability and confidence in daily activities that require balance, such as walking, driving, or reading. Gaze stabilization exercises help to recalibrate the brain’s response to movement and sensory stimuli, making them an integral part of concussion rehabilitation. Ultimately, they contribute to the restoration of functional vision and balance, allowing individuals to return to their regular routines with greater ease and less discomfort.
Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) Treatment
Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) is a common cause of dizziness that occurs when tiny calcium crystals, called otoconia, become dislodged from their normal position within the inner ear and move into one of the semicircular canals. These canals are part of the vestibular system, which helps regulate balance. When the crystals interfere with normal fluid movement in the canals, it disrupts the brain’s ability to interpret signals from the inner ear, causing brief episodes of intense dizziness, often triggered by changes in head position, such as rolling over in bed or looking up.
BPPV is often characterized by sudden and severe vertigo, a spinning sensation that can make everyday activities challenging. It is usually accompanied by nausea and difficulty with balance. Although the episodes are brief, they can be unsettling and have a significant impact on daily life.
The primary treatment for BPPV is vestibular rehabilitation therapy, which includes specific maneuvers designed to reposition the displaced crystals. One of the most common and effective treatments is the Epley maneuver, where a series of controlled head movements are performed to guide the displaced crystals back to their original location in the inner ear. These maneuvers help restore normal balance function by resolving the underlying issue causing the vertigo.
In addition to these repositioning techniques, balance exercises and gaze stabilization may be recommended to help patients regain their equilibrium and reduce the risk of future vertigo episodes. Vestibular rehabilitation exercises help train the brain and the vestibular system to adapt to changes and maintain balance. By performing these exercises regularly, individuals can improve their tolerance to head movements, reduce dizziness, and enhance their overall stability.
Balance and Coordination Exercises
Balance and coordination rehabilitation is an important part of concussion treatment, helping patients restore stability and motor function affected by brain injury. Concussions can disrupt the vestibular system and other areas of the brain that control movement, leading to difficulties with balance, coordination, and spatial awareness.
Balance exercises challenge the body’s ability to stay stable in different positions, such as standing on one leg, walking heel-to-toe, or using foam pads and balance boards. Exercises gradually increase in difficulty to help patients move more confidently.
Coordination exercises improve the brain’s ability to control and synchronize movements. Activities may include reaching for objects, fine motor tasks, or hand-eye coordination drills. As recovery progresses, exercises become more complex to further challenge motor control and cognitive processing.
Reflex light training enhances reaction time, attention, and coordination by having patients respond to rapidly changing visual stimuli. This helps the brain and eyes process sensory information more efficiently.
Together, these therapies help the brain and body relearn how to process sensory input, improving motor function, reducing the risk of falls, and supporting safe daily activity.
Mental Health Therapy for Brain Injuries
Concussions can have a significant impact on emotional well-being. Anxiety, depression, irritability, mood swings, and difficulty managing stress are common after a brain injury, particularly in the context of personal injury cases where life disruptions and recovery uncertainty can increase emotional strain.
At Keystone Medical Group, we integrate mental health support into our concussion care program to address these challenges. Our licensed therapist works closely with patients to assess emotional symptoms, identify stressors, and develop strategies to cope effectively. This includes personalized counseling sessions, coping skills training, and guidance on stress management techniques.
Mental health care is coordinated with other aspects of the concussion program, ensuring that emotional well-being is considered alongside cognitive, physical, and vestibular rehabilitation. By addressing the mental health component early, we aim to reduce the risk of prolonged recovery and help patients maintain focus on daily activities, work responsibilities, and long-term recovery goals.
For patients in personal injury cases, mental health support can also help manage the emotional complexities associated with legal proceedings, medical appointments, and insurance processes. Our approach emphasizes practical strategies to reduce anxiety, improve mood, and promote resilience, giving patients tools to handle both recovery and real-life demands.
Integrating mental health support with cognitive rehabilitation, physical therapy, and novel therapies like ANP treatment ensures a holistic approach to concussion care. Patients benefit from a comprehensive program that not only targets the injury itself but also supports overall recovery and long-term quality of life.
