Abstract

Head injury is a common cause of death and disability, and has long been considered incurable by doctors and public alike. While there has been great advances in medicine over the past 30 years that has greatly improved the outcome of these patients there is still a large burden of injury. The problems these patients face may include issues with memory, decision making, and personality changes which may place a great burden on both the patients and their families in addition to the extra support in daily activities that they may require throughout life. Magnetic resonance imaging, with its exquisite ability to safely examine the inner structure and workings of the brain, offers the potential to understand much more about this disease process. The Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre is one of the few places in the World where the MR scanner and the Intensive Care Unit are directly next to each other. I will present some of the research performed taking advantage of this facility covering from when patients are first admitted to many year after injury.