EPIDEMIOLOGY OF ATHLETIC HEAD INJURY
Section snippets
The Football Helmet Controversy
In 1962, the American Medical Association's (AMA's) newly established Committee on Medical Aspects of Sports hosted the “National Conference on Head Protection for Athletes,” which convened authorities of that era in the emerging field of “sports medicine” to discuss current issues.13 Football became the focus, as it is now, and the efficacy of the recent changes in the football helmet and the advent of the football face mask concerning catastrophic injury became the issue. “Catastrophic
Separating the Head From “Head/Neck”
The tradition of considering football catastrophic injuries as “head/neck” was realized as disguising the differing epidemiological patterns of catastrophic head and neck injuries, respectively. In 1966, Schneider (who was an active conferee in 1962) published his national survey of neurosurgeons as to the frequency and nature of football neurotrauma seen in their practice between 1959 and 1963.15 With a 61% response rate but a tabular display style that did not warn readers that the same case
CONCLUSION
The incidence and patterns of head injuries in sports is not well documented beyond the annual reporting of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research. Minimizing head injury in sports relies on existing standards for protective helmets, teaching of skills that minimize direct head impact even in contact sport, officiating rules that apply to the minimization of head injury mechanisms in the sport, and practically evaluating even the so-called minor concussion. The advantages
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2011, Nutrition and Traumatic Brain Injury: Improving Acute and Subacute Health Outcomes in Military PersonnelBrain injury forces of moderate magnitude elicit the fencing response
2009, Medicine and Science in Sports and ExerciseImaging in sports medicine an overview
2009, Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy ReviewAmateur boxing and risk of chronic traumatic brain injury: Systematic review of observational studies
2008, British Journal of Sports Medicine
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Risk Analysis, SLE Worldwide, Inc., Sun City, California