Sports-Related Concussions & Subconcussive Injuries

With demand for concussion education, not just for parents, coaches, and athletes, but, for health care professionals as well is at an all-time high. But who should sports programs hire to educate athletes, coaches, and parents about concussions? MomsTEAM asked a number of leading concussion educators. (first in a series)

The Arena Football League (AFL), in partnership with Brain Sentry, has become the first professional sports league to require helmet-mounted impact sensors to alert sideline personnel to hits that may cause concussion.

A multidisciplinary sports medicine team at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (CHA) has proposed sport-specific return-to-play guidelines after concussion for ten sports known to put young athletes at the highest risk of mild traumatic brain injury, including football.

Four years after the American Academy of Pediatrics adopted the recommended return-to-play (RTP) guidelines proposed by the Third International Conference on Concussion in Sport, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (CHA) has proposed sport-specific guidelines for ten sports known to put young athletes at the highest risk for concussion.

A simple, easy-to-construct and easy-to-use dropstick device to measure reaction time, which is impaired after concussion, could help sideline personnel identify athletes to remove from play because of possible concussion, and in concussion assessment and management.

A former college soccer player with a history of multiple undiagnosed concussions talks about her attempt to strengthen her state's youth concussion safety law.

The National Athletic Trainers' Association has released a new position statement on the management of sport concussion. The statement is an update to the NATA's original 2004 concussion guidelines and addresses education, prevention, documentation and legal aspects, evaluation and return-to-play considerations. In particular, the authors amended the return-to-play guidelines and now recommend no return on the day the athlete is concussed.

Some children and adolescents who have continue to report symptoms weeks and months after suffering a concussion may be exaggerating or feigning symptoms in order to get out of schoolwork or sports or for other reasons unrelated to their injury, says a new study in the journal Pediatrics.