During National Brain Injury Awareness month, what do you as a parent or coach need to know about brain injuries that can occur during sports activities? First on the list is that concussions are on the rise in youth sports. Players are more aggressive, hitting harder and playing tougher, sometimes to their own detriment. And I'm not just talking about boys. Concussions among female athletes are soaring, with head injury rates among female soccer players, for example, rising to the level of those in the NFL. The competitive nature of sports, coupled with the competitive nature of parents these days (pushing kids to excel at all costs) and the added lure of college scholarships and lucrative pro contracts, all point to a driving sports culture that is not going to change any time soon. In this culture, injuries to kids are going to continue to escalate.
- Always wear the appropriate safety equipment. This includes helmets for all sports that require them (football, ice hockey, boys' lacrosse, equestrian activities), as well as for sports where they are recommended, such as skiing, skateboarding, skating and biking.
- Make sure all helmets are properly fitted to the head -- neither too loose nor too tight -- and that the chin strap is worn buckled at all times. For football, lacrosse and ice hockey, helmets should be NOCSAE approved or reconditioned to NOCSAE-approved standards.
- Safety equipment is not just limited to headgear: mouthguards have been proven to cut the risk of concussion as well. But in order to be effective, they should be custom-fitted (even if only the boil-and-bite type) and cover the entire dental arch -- with particular focus on making sure the guard covers all of the back teeth. An off-the-rack, non-custom mouth guard, or one that has been altered to cover only the front teeth, will not provide the protection needed in the event of a hit to the head. So for all sports that require mouthguards, or any sport involving body contact or projectiles, like balls or pucks, make sure your child is wearing a properly fitted mouthguard. This will not only protect your investment in his or her smile, but also provide an additional cushion against a concussion.
- Learn to recognize the signs of concussion or other serious trauma to the head (see Concussion Update, Part I).
- After an injury to the head, keep athletes out of the game until they can be evaluated by a physician. Young athletes will mask their own symptoms in order to stay in the game. This makes it all the more important for coaches and adult volunteers to keep kids out of the game until they get a full medical check up. Those who play through the pain of a concussion are at tremendous risk of "second impact syndrome," which is often fatal.
- Second impact syndrome is caused when a brain that has already been bruised from a prior impact begins to swell rapidly after a second hit to the head. The swelling prevents the heart from pumping oxygen to the brain and usually results in permanent brain damage or death.
- As we saw with Natasha Richardson's story, even a single hit can be fatal. It is important to note that after a hit to the head there can be a period of lucidity where the person appears to be symptom-free. In the meantime, internal injuries may be mounting and the window for getting effective treatment is closing rapidly. Without proper medical evaluation, there is no way to know if the person has suffered a concussion (a "shaking" of the brain, that can be healed with rest and limited activity), or a more serious brain injury, requiring immediate medical intervention. Parents and coaches always need to take head injuries seriously.
- According to the Sports Concussion Institute, brain injury is the leading cause of death in sports, and accounts for an estimated 65 - 95% of fatalities in football.
- Doctors at the Cneter for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio recently determined the 80% of concussions go unreported among youth athletes. In looking at 1,308 concussion incidents that were reported, they also found that 41% of these players returned to play too soon, before their injuries were fully healed.
- As mentioned at the beginning of this post, concussions among female athletes are skyrocketing. To read more about the effects of increasing aggressiveness in women's sports and the toll it is taking on the bodies of female athletes, take a look at Michael Sokolove's article from the NY Times magazine, "An Uneven Playing Field." Or, better yet, read the whole story in his book, "Warrior Girls: Protecting our Daughters Against the Injury Epidemic in Women's Sports." If you coach girls' sports or have a daughter who plays sports, you can't miss this book.
The conclusion is that concussions, especially recurring concussions, can have long-range detrimental effects on our children. Parents and coaches need to do all that we can to minimize head injuries to our kids while playing sports, not just to keep them healthy and alive today, but to make sure they don't suffer negative effects of today's carelessness into adulthood.
Accidents occurs unknowingly and we can be victims of brain injury at any moment of our life. I really appreciate the view of brain injury prevention and awareness programs, as there is an well known proverb- 'Prevention is better than Cure'.
Posted by: brain injury | July 18, 2009 at 08:49 AM