Wednesday, September 22, 2010
New Tools, Studies Further Concussion Discussion
With
the high school and college football seasons well under way, the National
Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) and National Academy of Neuropsychology
Foundation (NAN) have joined forces to educate athletes, coaches, parents, health professionals, administrators
and the general public about concussions in football. The objective is to raise awareness of the
importance of identifying concussions and implementing appropriate management tools
when they occur. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
between 1.6 million and 3.8 million brain injuries occur in sports each
year — and 63,000 occur in high school student-athletes alone. Last month, the
journal Pediatrics reported that emergency room visits for concussions
among young athletes playing team sports more than doubled over a 10-year
period, and 40 percent of those injuries are sustained by children ages 8 to
13.
As
a centerpiece of the NATA and NAN efforts, a free 12-minute educational video
titled “Concussions in Football: Signs, Symptoms and Playing Safe” can
now be viewed here. Funded in part by the National Football League, it is
similar to the concussions in hockey video the organizations produced last year
and joins other recent educational offerings available from the National Federation of State High School Associations and the CDC (one for high school sports and one for youth sports). “Given the recent
advancements in concussion research, education among coaches, parents,
athletes, the media, and other influencers is critical,” says athletic trainer
Kevin Guskiewicz, chair of the department of exercise and sport science at the
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “The invisible nature of concussions
makes it imperative that athletes and coaches properly recognize the signs and
symptoms of concussions, in order to foster quicker diagnosis and medical care
when needed.”
Guskiewicz joined other medical professionals, federal legislators and a 15-year-old
concussion victim Thursday for a congressional briefing on proposed legislation to reduce the number of young athletes who suffer the consequences of sports-related traumatic brain injuries — including the proposed Concussion Treatment and Care Tools (ConTACT) Act.
The latest educational campaign from NATA and NAN explicitly urges athletes to
immediately consult with their athletic trainer, team physician or coach if
they think they might have sustained a concussion — even if the symptoms appear
mild. The video emphasizes current practice and return-to-play guidelines: If a
concussion is suspected, the athlete should be removed from play immediately
and not return on the same day. Return to play should only occur when the
athlete has been evaluated and written clearance provided by a health care
professional trained in the evaluation and management of sports concussions.
NATA
has published a position statement on concussions, and NAN has developed a white paper on the topic.
Meanwhile, The
Cleveland Clinic announced Wednesday that it will conduct independent research
on concussions and other sports-related head and neck injuries. Doctors and
scientists from the clinic's Neurological Institute and its Spine Research
Laboratory will use equipment manufactured and donated by Rawlings to research
helmets and other protective accessories used in both baseball and football.
They will measure the equipment's ability to minimize impacts, with the goal of determining the effects of single and multiple impacts to the head and how to reduce such injuries through protective equipment.
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Posted At
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