Sports and brain injury

Article By:

McCrea, Michael A. Departments of Neurosurgery and Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Nelson, Lindsay D. Department of Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Janecek, Julie D. Department of Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Last reviewed:2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.YB140815

Sport-related concussion (SRC) has become the focus of increasing concern for clinicians, researchers, sporting organizations, and athletes because of its reported prevalence, its acute effects, and the fears about its potential long-term neurological consequences. Concussion is among the most frequent injuries experienced by athletes participating in contact and collision sports (for example, football, hockey, and wrestling), and it occurs at all levels of participation. From 1997 to 2007, visits to hospital emergency departments for 8- to 13-year-old children affected by concussion in organized team sports doubled, and those for 14- to 19-year-old teenagers more than tripled. The true incidence of SRC is thought to be higher than that reported in epidemiological studies because of a tendency by athletes to not recognize or report these injuries.

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