Traumatic Brain Injury
Do you feel like you are not yourself after your accident?
Diagnosis of TBI
Why is TBI so difficult to identify? With traditional diagnostic methods like CT and MRI, these brain injuries may appear invisible as these methods measure hemorrhage, edema, vascular injury, and intracranial pressure. However, most cases of TBI often show no abnormalities.
With state-of-the-art advanced brain MRI known as DTI (Diffusion Tensor Imaging), it can accurately detect and document subtle injuries that interfere with the normal functioning of the operating circuits of the brain.
We use DTI data and FDA-approved software to provide 3D color tractograms that illustrate where the brain has suffered white matter injury that causes water to leak from neural tracts, which has been associated with impairment.
To better understand the complexity behind a traumatic brain injury, we ask patients to complete a thorough registration and intake process where patients describe their injury and symptoms.
Followed by the intake and registration process, a full neurological evaluation is performed by board-certified neurosurgeon and the inventor of DTI (U.S. Patent – 5,560,360), Dr. Aaron Filler. As a treating physician, Dr Filler has served as a medical expert to confirm TBI diagnoses.
There may be 60-70 particular injury locations in the brain which correspond to distinct clinical symptoms. Dr. Filler’s proprietary DTI protocol includes detailed analysis methods that can include correlating the onset of symptoms with the objective DTI image findings. Our DTI process also includes other imaging sequences including SWI, routine brain MRI, T1, T2, mean diffusivity, FLAIR, that can help elucidate previous brain injury, if any, or other brain abnormalities.
Treatment of TBI
We believe in non-invasive technology that offers targeted and effective therapeutics personalized to each patient’s TBI symptoms.
We offer the first available DTI-neuronavigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) with specific protocols tailored to each patient. Most importantly, the target for therapy is guided by the results of the patient’s DTI scan which provide truly personalized protocols.
With neuronavigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS), a magnetic field is briefly generated in a handheld coil passes harmlessly and noninvasively down into the brain and creates a small electric field in the outer layer (cortex) of the brain. nTMS treatment is solidly grounded in scientific and clinical research and harnesses the brain’s own healing power- neuroplasticity.
Our SmartFocus® TMS technology uses the science of electricity to help the brain heal itself and every treatment is personalized to the patient’s own brain anatomy and alertness level. As a non-drug approach, nTMS only influences brain activity and does not alter body chemistry in other parts of the body.
Take control today
Request an appointment with Dr. Aaron Filler
Please note that all fields are mandatory. For fastest service, please call us at (310-314-6410) between 9AM-5PM Pacific.
Meet Dr. Filler
A globally recognized expert in the treatment of peripheral nerve disorders and the development of nerve imaging technology, Dr. Aaron Filler is the world’s leading expert in treatment of nerve pain. He has revolutionized nerve-pain treatment by inventing several new technologies. One such technology, MR Neurography, enables doctors to use an MRI scanner to examine nerves, previously a difficult-to-impossible tissue to visualize with MR imaging.
Dr. Filler’s research in axonal transport is leading to a whole new generation of advanced pain medications. He has developed many new “minimal access” surgery methods that allow him to treat complex nerve problems with small outpatient surgeries. He has also pioneered the use of the Open MRI scanner to do surgeries and other therapies with the ultra-high precision and safety of the magnetic resonance imaging.
At Dr. Filler’s Neurological Injury Specialists Management Group in Santa Monica, California, the key to success remains a very traditional endeavor: listening to the patient and doing a thorough and expert neurological examination. Dr. Filler typically spends more than an hour with each new patient. The results of the initial examination are then strengthened and perfected with application of advanced technology available nowhere else in the world.
Dr. Aaron Filler combines three key components in his treatment of each patient:
- Compassionate personal attention,
- Expert medical skills, and
- The best technology in the world
He combines these components to turn insoluble pain problems into specific treatable diagnoses. Prior to coming to the Institute for Nerve Medicine, many of Dr. Filler’s patients have seen a dozen doctors (or more), experienced failed surgeries, and have even had their very pain questioned. Time and again, Dr. Filler demonstrates that in many of these cases the problem is the doctor and not the patient. A cure is in reach when the best available medical care is brought to bear.
Dr. Filler has an MD from the University of Chicago, a PhD from Harvard University, and is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in England. His medical training included four years of medical school, eight years of neurosurgical training at one of the leading neurosurgery programs in the US, an additional one-year fellowship in neuroimaging at the University of London, another year of training in complex spinal surgery at UCLA, and a fellowship in peripheral nerve surgery with Dr. David Kline in New Orleans.
He is the inventor on ten major patents, has published more than twenty prominent scientific publications, and has done more than a hundred presentations at scientific and medical meetings. He is also the author of Do You Really Need Back Surgery? from Oxford University Press, a well-received 300-page book for the general public. He enjoys medical staff privileges at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
