Concussions

Rehab 3 Center for Athletes is committed to providing quality health care services for all student-athletes. As such, Rehab 3 Center for Athletes is proactive in the assessment and management of concussions with the intention of limiting the risks of concussions associated with athletics, and the potential catastrophic and long-term complications from said concussions. Assessment and management of concussive injuries, and return-to play decisions remain some of the most difficult responsibilities facing the sports medicine team.

Due to the nature of concussions, and their potentially serious complications, it is imperative that the health care professionals taking care of athletes are able to recognize, evaluate and treat these injuries in a complete and progressive fashion.  

Seacoast Center for Athletes has developed a Concussion Management Plan to help the Rehab 3 Center for Athletes Athletic Training staff care for student-athletes of its contracted high schools who have sustained a concussion.

 

Definition of concussion

As defined in the Consensus Statement from the International Conference on Concussion in Sport (Zurich, 2008): “Concussion is defined as a complex pathophysiological process affecting the brain, induced by traumatic biomechanical forces. Several common features that incorporate clinical, pathologic and biomechanical injury constructs that may be utilized in defining the nature of a concussive head injury include:

  1. Concussion may be caused either by a direct blow to the head, face, neck or elsewhere on the body with an ‘’impulsive’’ force transmitted to the head.
  2. Concussion typically results in the rapid onset of short-lived impairment of neurologic function that resolves spontaneously.
  3. Concussion may result in neuropathological changes, but the acute clinical symptoms largely reflect a functional disturbance rather than a structural injury.
  4. Concussion results in a graded set of clinical symptoms that may or may not involve loss of consciousness. Resolution of the clinical and cognitive symptoms typically follows a sequential course; however, it is important to note that, in a small percentage of cases, post-concussive symptoms may be prolonged.
  5. No abnormality on standard structural neuroimaging studies is seen in concussion.”

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