Litigation

The importance of base line neuropsychological testing for concussion management

By Michael Kaplen

The New York Times had a very interesting op-ed piece yesterday entitled, "Head Games" on the importance of keeping athletes who sustained a concussion from returning to play until they return to base line. 

The real difficulty in concussion management is determining when to allow a player to return to play.  What medical researchers are finding is that reports of the elimination of physical symptoms are not a reliable indicator of when to allow an athlete to return to play.  Far more important are neuropsychological tests to see how the brain is functioning.  However, without the ability to compare an athlete pre and post injury, the tests are not as helpful.  Therefore, it is important that ALL school programs require their students to have base line neuropsychological evaluations prior to the start of the sport's season. 

You can read the full article by clicking here.    

Full post as published by Brain Injury News and Information on September 14, 2008 (boomark / email).