Who needs a brain that works?

A few tidbits from my recent concussion reading.

A few weeks ago I did a bit of refresher to see what I might’ve missed in the recent concussion literature. I thought I’d share it here, with a bit of discussion, because I think it’s important we all know something about concussions, because they are common, can ruin someone’s life, and can be ameliorated.

Concussion is defined many ways. One definition might read, “a traumatic brain injury caused by biomechanical forces” but here’s my even more basic attempt:

“when your brain sustains a blunt traumatic injury, and you feel symptoms from it”

These could be any of the signs of brain injury: a loss of consciousness, confusion, ‘seeing stars’, months of trouble focusing at work/school, mood instability, emotional outbursts, or just some nausea.

For many, perhaps the vast majority, it’ll be a brief period of having an unclear head, and maybe a day or two of headache. For a very few, they’ll be permanently unable to work or continue school due to chronic headaches, trouble concentrating, and memory loss.

We also know that early suspicion of concussion can allow patients to get into brain rehab services. This is not just a ‘nice to have’, but actually improves things. Patients in concussion rehab have shorter duration of symptoms, less severity of symptoms, and better long term outcomes.

For someone on the ground, lets say a coach or a parent, the cardinal teaching is:

RECOGNISE if a concussion is *suspected* (you don’t have to be sure, its enough to suspect a concussion…leave the actual diagnosing to the specialist doctors)

REMOVE the patient from competition. Their day is done. A day or two of brain rest is important.

REFER them to a doctor for assessment, diagnosis and treatment.

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