Concussion Treatment
At Keystone Medical Group, our comprehensive concussion evaluations provide an in-depth understanding of each patient’s specific needs and symptoms. 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, from balance and coordination to cognitive 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 offer acellular nanoparticle (ANP) therapy to target inflammation and support the body’s natural healing processes. For enhanced oxygenation and cellular recovery, we include Exercise With Oxygen Therapy (EWOT), which can improve energy levels and aid in symptom management. Each component of our treatment plan is chosen based on its potential to address a patient’s unique symptoms, ensuring a holistic and focused approach to concussion care.
What to Expect
During your time with us for concussion treatment, 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 specific at-home exercises and activities to reinforce progress, designed to be both manageable and effective for your daily routine.
Education is a central part of our approach, so we’ll take the time to explain each step of the treatment process. This includes clarifying why certain therapies are recommended and offering practical advice for managing symptoms at home. We understand that concussions can bring about uncertainties, so we’re here to offer reassurance, answer questions, and make sure you feel fully supported and informed along the way.
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
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: Acellular Nanoparticle Therapy
Regenerative medicine is an exciting and rapidly advancing field that shows great potential for individuals dealing with traumatic brain injuries (TBI). By focusing on healing at the cellular level, regenerative therapies aim to reduce neuroinflammation and harness the body’s natural ability to regenerate, supporting the restoration of neurological function. These innovative treatments address both the immediate effects of TBI and offer promise for long-term recovery and rehabilitation.
We are actively conducting research through clinical trials with an Investigational New Drug (IND) approval for using acellular nanoparticle (ANP) therapy to treat TBI. Leading our clinical research team is Dr. David Buechner, one of the leading experts in the TBI space, who brings years of experience in traumatic brain injury research and clinical care. This clinical trial reflects our commitment to advancing regenerative medicine and offering new treatment options for those with brain injuries. As the field continues to evolve, these cutting-edge approaches provide hope for personalized treatments that address each patient’s unique needs, improving both short-term outcomes and long-term recovery. Through these advancements, we are opening new possibilities for enhanced recovery and a better quality of life for individuals affected by TBI.
Exercise with Oxygen Therapy (EWOT)
Exercise With Oxygen Therapy (EWOT) is an innovative treatment that involves exercising while breathing in concentrated oxygen. This combination helps increase the oxygen levels in your blood, improving circulation and enhancing cellular function throughout the body, including the brain. During an EWOT session, patients typically engage in low- to moderate-intensity exercises, such as walking or cycling, while breathing oxygen through a mask or hood.
For individuals with concussions, EWOT can be highly beneficial in promoting healing and reducing symptoms. Increased oxygen delivery helps support brain function, improve energy levels, and accelerate the body’s natural healing processes. It also aids in reducing inflammation and boosting cognitive function, which can be impaired after a concussion. By improving oxygenation to the brain, EWOT may help manage common concussion symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, and difficulty concentrating. Regular EWOT sessions, when used as part of a comprehensive concussion treatment plan, can play a key role in promoting recovery and improving overall brain health.
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.
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.
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.
Balance and Coordination Exercises
Balance and coordination rehabilitation is an essential part of concussion treatment, focusing on helping individuals restore stability and improve motor function that may have been affected by the injury. Concussions often disrupt the vestibular system, which controls equilibrium, as well as other areas of the brain involved in motor control. These disruptions can lead to issues with balance, coordination, and spatial awareness, making it crucial to rehabilitate these functions in order for individuals to regain confidence and independence in daily activities.
Balance exercises challenge the body’s ability to maintain stability in different postures and environments. These exercises may include standing on one leg, walking in a straight line, or using balance boards or foam pads to improve postural control. The goal is to progressively challenge the body’s ability to stabilize itself in various positions, ultimately allowing for smoother, more confident movements.
Coordination exercises aim to enhance the ability to control and synchronize movements between different parts of the body. These exercises may involve reaching for objects, performing fine motor tasks, or activities that require hand-eye coordination, such as throwing and catching. As patients progress, these exercises become more complex, involving faster or more intricate movements that challenge the brain’s coordination abilities.
Reflex light training is an additional technique used to improve reaction time, focus, and coordination. This exercise involves using specialized light systems or visual stimuli to train the eyes and brain to respond quickly to changes in the environment. The patient follows or reacts to rapidly changing light patterns, which helps improve reflexes, attention, and overall brain processing speed. Reflex light training is particularly useful for enhancing coordination and reaction time, helping patients respond more effectively to sudden movements or unexpected challenges in their environment.
Together, balance, coordination, and reflex light training exercises help the brain and body relearn how to process and respond to sensory information, improving motor function and reducing the risk of falls or accidents. These therapies play a vital role in concussion recovery by restoring physical stability and enabling individuals to engage more fully in daily activities with greater confidence.
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.
