Between 10 and 30 per cent of athletes in contact sports such as hockey and football sustain concussions each season.
The numbers vary due to under reporting and improper diagnoses of concussion.
One local business wants to change that.
A study in the 2012 Canadian Journal of Neuroscience found significant deficiencies in the level of concussion education in Canadian medical schools, with the majority having little to no formal concussion education in the curriculum.
According to the most recent Zurich consensus statement, a concussion, or mild traumatic brain injury, is a complex process affecting the brain induced by biomechanical forces. The forces that they are referring to are acceleration or impulse forces delivered to the brain.
Concussions cause a temporary dysfunction in the involved nerves, where they don’t work properly for a period of time and may cause symptoms such as headaches, nausea or vomiting, dizziness or blurred vision, balance problems, sensitivity to light or noise.
If managed properly, concussions are completely recoverable in most cases. If managed improperly and players are allowed to return to play too early, another concussion during the dysfunctional phase can cause severe or permanent brain injuries.
Because MRI, and CAT scans don’t show signs of concussions, other methods of evaluating the brain of a potential concussion, such as the baseline test, are needed.
Since 2001, concussion experts have expressed the benefits of comprehensive baseline testing, done prior to each season, as well as a strict, step-wise, medically supervised return-to-play criteria.
Each and every professional, major junior, and university sports program requires their athletes to have a baseline evaluation done prior to stepping on the playing surface.
Before the London Olympics the entire Canadian team was required to get comprehensive baseline concussion evaluations.
Golden Ears Orthopaedics and Sports Physiotherapy wants to take the same care with amateur athletes, offering its Complete Concussion Management program. It aims to bring the level of care as seen in professional sports organizations amateur athletes – those most at risk.
Golden Ears Physiotherapy recently become a certified concussion treatment clinic through Complete Concussion Management and is about to launch its program,
“As one of the few certified treatment clinics in the area, we are working on educating sports associations and, more importantly, we are offering extensive treatment services with specially trained physiotherapists that will determine a player’s wellness before they get back in the game,” said Rachel Carrier, of Golden Ears Physiotherapy.
The first step in properly managing concussions comes before the injury occurs, with baseline testing, which includes that for memory, concentration, visual processing, reaction time, balance, motor strength and neurocognitive testing.
Under the current medical guidelines for a concussion injury, return-to-play decisions are made using a ‘symptom-based’ approach.
However, medical research has shown that following a concussion, symptoms are the first thing to resolve despite continued deficits from baseline neurocognitive functioning, balance, reaction time, visual tracking.
Using symptoms alone to guide decisions is also a problem for another reason: athletes can withhold information regarding symptoms, to return to play.
With baseline testing, concussion tests are compared to pre-injury results so that subtle deficiencies can be picked up and the diagnosis can be properly made.
Baseline scores are also used to determine when the athlete has completely returned to baseline levels and can safely to return to play.
