Experts provide information on concussion injuries
When it comes to diagnosing and treating someone who has suffered a concussion because of athletics, what Michael “Micky” Collins, Ph.D., and Wayne Sebastianelli, M.D., say grabs an audience’s attention.
They are two widely respected authorities on an injury that physicians, athletic trainers and coaches are taking seriously, especially among high school athletes.
On Friday, both gave informative lectures at the first symposium held at the Commonwealth Medical College, an event sponsored by the Scranton Orthopaedic Specialists.
“It’s always a concern with a head injury,” Lakeland football coach Jeff Wasilchak said. “Fortunately, we have an athletic trainer that handles our injuries. But it was very beneficial for me to be here and hear these presentations.”
In his presentation, Collins, who is the vice president, Chief Clinical Officer, and co-founder of ImPact Applications, a computerized neurocognitive test battery designed to assess sports concussion and mild traumatic brain injury, defined and described concussions as an “energy crisis” in the brain.
He emphasized the importance of assessing the injury and taking the necessary precautions through testing to make sure an athlete is fully recovered from a concussion.
However, knowing and diagnosing the severity of a concussion remains a struggle for clinicians. And both Collins and Sebastianelli stated that the severity cannot be determined until the athlete is recovered.
As part of his lecture, Collins also outlined some indicators included headache, feeling slowed down, difficulty in concentrating, dizziness, fogginess, fatigue, visual blurring, light sensitivity, memory dysfunction and balance.
And while there was a study done on the length of recovery for a concussed athlete, he said that each injury must be treated differently based on their test assessments.
“You can’t manage this thing with a cookbook,” he said.
Starting off citing that there are approximately 1.7 million concussions a year, Dr. Sebastianelli, who is Kalenak Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation and the director of athletic medicine at Penn State University, showed videos of high impact collisions from Penn State football games.
He, like Collins, pointed out some preventative steps that include athletic skill coaching, enforcement of relevant rules, protective gear and accurate assessment.
“You have to stop participation while they are having symptoms of a concussion,” Sebastianelli stressed.
What he described as a “functional” helmet, like the one worn for football, protects, but Sebastianelli said, “there is no concussion proof helmet.”
And he too outlined a return to play team approach that includes the team athletic trainer, the team physician, a Neuropsychologist, athletic administrator and head coach all being on the same page.
“The information available now is outstanding,” Riverside athletic trainer Jarad Bonda said. “This is a great step for the area to bring something like this to the medical college.”
Both Collins and Sebastianelli pointed out that Pennsylvania is making big strides in combating concussions among high school students pointing to House Bill 200 that establishes “standards for managing concussions and traumatic brain injuries to student athletes; assigning duties to the Department of Health and the Department of Education; and imposing penalties.”
“Pennsylvania is really one of the more enlightened states when it comes to this,” Collins said during the question and answer session.
Contact the writer: jbfawcett@timesshamrock.com