What exactly are the possible consequences of concussion?
Short term consequences
Second impact syndrome – this is the situation that you hear about occasionally where a young footballer dies unexpectedly after head knock with history of concussion a few weeks earlier.
It seems like there is a period of vulnerability after concussion where subsequent trivial head injury can have more catastrophic effects.
This is clearly the most scary possible complication.
Worsening of symptoms – human and animal studies show that if not rested, symptoms and function will be worse, but then improve with rest.
Medium term
Neurocognitive changes – it has been shown that there can be subtle neurocognitive changes in children shown a couple of months down the track.
Functional MRI studies show changes further down the track with comparison of adolescents with history of concussion vs adolescents with no history of concussion.
Long term
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy – the long term consequence with the biggest media impact is chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) – this is type of dementia that the NFL are looking at. The 2015 movie ‘Concussion’ with Will Smith concerned the revelation of CTE in the NFL. CTE is certainly concerning but it is still unclear what the link is. There are estimated to be 4 million concussions each year in North America, but 100 cases of confirmed CTE.
