Comprehensive Neuroscience Program
"Iraq is a hazardous environment for the nervous system."—CNP Director Colonel William Campbell, M.D.
Neurological injuries recently ranked as the third most common type of non-orthopedic injuries seen in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Comprehensive Neuroscience Program (CNP) is a multi-site, collaborative clinical research program working to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders, with a focus on acute care.
The program's major areas of concentration are acute neurology, headache, peripheral nerve injuries, muscle disease, epilepsy and stroke. CNP researchers examine neurological disorders from a broad perspective that encompasses not only basic research, but also real-world applications.
Providing and Improving Care for Patients with Acute Brain Injury
One area of investigation is traumatic cerebral vasospasm, a condition in which the blood vessels in the brain constrict, limiting or cutting off blood flow. Evaluation of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who have sustained head trauma has revealed an unexpectedly high proportion of vasospasm, which can easily go undetected. Lieutenant Colonel Rocco Armonda, M.D., is leading CNP-funded efforts to conduct research into and design interventions for cerebral vasospasm. As part of this effort, he has initiated an intervention adding microballoon angioplasty to the normal treatment protocol. Armonda’s findings were published in Neurosurgery, the leading journal of academic neurosurgeons.
Exercise-related Illness and Chronic Headache
Several neurological disorders that are less visible, but still threaten military readiness also have drawn the attention of CNP researchers, including exertional rhabdomyolosis (ER), headaches and seizure disorders. ER, which is linked to over-training, is rare in the general population, but its incidence among military service members is on the rise.
WRAMC's headache program is focused on migraines and chronic daily headache. Program personnel surveyed returning troops and discovered a high incidence of migraine. Ineffective management of headache among this population could contribute to a negative impact on productivity, troop readiness and costs.
Program Staff Aides in News Anchor's Recovery
On January 29, 2006, while reporting in Iraq, ABC news anchor Bob Woodruff was severely injured when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb near Taji. After receiving a life-saving craniectomy in Balad, he was airlifted to the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) in Bethesda, Maryland. Upon arrival at NNMC, a team including Armonda performed a cerebral angiogram on Woodruff. Over the following six weeks, Woodruff was maintained in a medically induced coma and underwent an additional surgery to remove debris that had lodged in his skull base.
Once the reporter was able to return home for further rehabilitation, Armonda traveled to New York to assist with Woodruff’s cranioplasty using a military computer-manufactured acrylic plate and injectable bone “paste.”
CNP is a collaboration involving Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), National Naval Medical Center (NNMC), Conemaugh Health System, USU and HJF, under the direction of USU Neurology Chair Colonel William Campbell, M.D.