Concussion Program

Head injuries occur in all sports and vary greatly in severity from the rare but potentially fatal intra-crainal bleeding to the more common concussion. All concussions, even the mildest forms, represent a serious diffuse brain injury and require proper management. Unfortunately, many concussions go misdiagnosed or just overlooked as a mere "bell ringing."

Symptoms and Complications of Concussions Include:

"Bell Ringing" or "wooziness"
Temporary loss of consciousness
Memory loss (amnesia) of any duration
Emotional lability
Unusually prolonged loss of consciousness
Changes in vision (including blurring)
Disturbed equilibrium (balance)
Headaches
Permanent brain damage, depending on the extent of injury; repeated concussions can cause slurred speech, slow movement, slow thought processes and tremors.
Prolonged healing time if usual activities are resumed too soon
Susceptibility to repeated concussions; often less trauma or force is required to cause a second concussion than is necessary to cause the first. After one concussion, an athlete is 4 times more likely to sustain a second.
Death from second impact syndrome (a return to sports before all symptoms have completely disappeared); a minor second injury that occurs before all symptoms have disappeared can cause sudden, massive, irreversible swelling of the brain, resulting in death.

There is a lot of debate and on-going research in the area of concussion and the timing of return to sport.