US concussion expert to speak at Dublin sports injury summit

Sports concussion expert Dr Micky Collins is the keynote speaker at UPMC Beacon orthopaedic summit next Saturday 30th November at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin which will focus on sports injury management and concussion in particular.

Although there have been a couple of high profile incidents here in recent months where players have continued on the pitch despite receiving a knock to the head, Beacon consultant orthopaedic surgeon Maurice Neligan says awareness and the level of caution with which concussion is treated has improved in recent years.

“Before that it was less recognised and it was not treated,” he says. “It was almost considered manly to stay on the pitch and to be able to play on. Now it’s recognised that that’s actually quite a dangerous thing.”

Dr Collins was one of the co-founders of the Impact assessment in the US which involves a 25-minute cognitive test to evaluate if a sports person is suffering from concussion. Only when they get a score, within a certain percentage of what they received when originally taking the test, can they return to play.

View full article in The Irish Times here

Concussion in sport - European conference

First Brain Injury and Sport - European Conference:                 
Tackling the concussion crisis Acquired Brain Injury Ireland, in association with EBIS (European Brain Injury Society) will host a ‘Brain Injury and Sport’ conference at the Aviva Stadium, Lansdowne Road, Dublin on Friday 13th December 2013. Educating players, coaches and clinicians about concussion management and return to play guidelines; ABI Ireland and EBIS are bringing together a panel of expert speakers to discuss the growing concern surrounding the head injury. For more information see www.braininjuryandsport.ie

Concussion in Sport - view editorial in The Lancet here

 Sports-related concussions in youth: improving the science, changing the culture released on Oct 30 by the US Institute of Medicine and National Research Council—focuses on concussions in young people between 5 and 21 years of age. Incidence data are far from definitive, but the report cites estimates of between 1·6 million and 3·8 million traumatic brain injuries related to sports and leisure in the USA per year, and National Collegiate Athletic Association data suggest that sports-related concussions have increased in recent decades. Information on the long-term health sequelae of concussions in young people is also patchy.

However, the report authors highlight that the ongoing development of the brain might affect susceptibility to, and recovery from, concussion. Concussion can result in physical, cognitive, emotional, and sleep problems: typically recovery takes 2 weeks, although persistence of symptoms for periods of up to years has been reported. Worryingly, previous concussions are associated with an increased risk of further concussions, and there is evidence that repeated concussions increase the number and severity of symptoms.