Postconcussive Syndrome Case Studies

The media and fans fostered a heightened awareness for sport concussion as they learned of high-profile professional athletes who attributed their retirements to repetitive concussions. Additionally, postconcussion syndrome was identified in players who retired for other reasons in the months and years after their injuries. As a result, the current research concerned with the identification, management, and long-term effects of concussion is adding new and exciting information to the professional body of knowledge required to reduce the risk of injury.” (Cerebral Concussion: Causes, Effects, and Risks in

Recently, an enormous amount of attention has been given to the long-term effects caused by a concussion. Despite the fact that the understanding and awareness as to the severity of this traumatic brain injury (TBI) has greatly improved, concussions are commonly disregarded, undiagnosed and/or under-treated. Unlike an external injury that is easily seen, a concussion is an internal brain injury; therefore, without the use of diagnostic imaging, the concussion itself is invisible. However, symptoms can be helpful in diagnosing a concussion when diagnostic imaging is not readily available.

They are able to identity any suspected signs of concussions right away. (Broglio, 2008) Due to the numerous medical advancements, researchers have been able to understand what concussions are and the course of their recovery. This has dramatically improved the understanding of what a concussion is and how it affects the person. For example, the features of a concussion and the typical recovery. With all of the sports-related injuries, athletes have become the prime interest for researchers, specifically concussions. Sports-related concussions, or SRC, have researcher’s interest. They are looking for what acute injury factors and individual characteristics occur post concussive recovery. The researchers measured on the Glasgow Coma Scale, or GCS, it is very well known for its system with classifying TBI severity during an acute period. It was originally developed to assess a patient’s level of consciousness, using rating of eye, motor, and verbal responses. Researchers have found the following signs and symptoms of concussions. Observable features of altered mental status include: vacant stare, delayed verbal and motor responses, confusion or inability to focus attention, disorientation, slurred or incoherent speech, gross observable

Signs of a concussion include alteration of the individuals mental state, loss of consciousness, and in some cases convulsive movements may occur (P. McCrory et al., 2013; Silver et al., 2011). There are also symptoms that may be seen after some time has passed after the initial impact, such as behavioral changes, impaired cognitive

Many people hear the word “concussion” and think of it as being just a simple headache; however, not many know the significant health consequences associated with receiving a concussion. Concussions can have a variety of adverse effects on a person, some of which include sensory changes and deficits, emotional difficulties like depression, and an overall reduction in cognitive functioning. Abnormal eye movements and a reduced sense of touch are examples of sensory changes and deficits that are common with concussions. Individuals on the receiving end of concussions also deal with emotional difficulties including depression and even certain forms of guilt. Reduction in overall cognitive

by King (1996) stated that a range of post concussions symptoms are often reported after

Post-concussion syndrome is a complex disorder with symptoms can consist of headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and irritability that can last as little as a week and up to months after a head injury. The causes can be a traumatic blow to the head or neck injuries in which the patient does not have to lose consciousness. The effect of being injured can do permanent damaged to the brain and nervous system. Dealing with Post-concussion syndrome not only can have a physical effect, but a psychological one as well (Mayo clinic page 2).

A concussion is a mild form of traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by a sudden or violent blow, bump, or jolt to the head. Concussions can also occur from a fall or a blow to the body that causes the head to move rapidly back and forth. These types of sudden or violent impacts make the brain accelerate inside of the skull, in movements called coups and contrecoups. These movements lead to the brain striking the front and back of the skull, damaging the delicate and vital organ. The Hippocratic Corpus, a collection of medical works from ancient Greece, is the first written work to mention concussions, and it discusses loss of functions such as speech, hearing and sight that can result from "commotion of the brain"2. The idea of a disruption of mental functions by a "shaking of the brain" remained the accepted understanding of concussions until the 19th century. The Persian physician Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi was the first person to use the term "cerebral concussion" in the 10th century A.D., and his definition of concussions as a transient loss of function with no physical damage, paved the way for the medical understanding of the condition for centuries. Since then we have come a long way in our understanding of concussions, and since concussions are common injuries, a lot is known about how they occur, and what their effects are upon the human body. According to the CDC, 1.6 million to 3.8 million concussions occur each year in the United States and 5-10% of

Post-Concussion-Syndrome (PCS) is a form of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). PCS is caused when a traumatic brain injury occurs do to an outside force (such as accidents) and the patient becomes concussed. Do to this, PCS is an environmental disease. PCS can also refer to the symptoms that a person may get directly after getting a concussion or initial trauma but many professionals’ use the term PCS to describe what happens to a person after they get a concussion, of either one crucial concussion or when a person get’s multiple concussion (either in rapid succession or concussions throughout a timeline) where the symptoms still impact them for longer than a few weeks.

The cognitive challenges that can occur with Post-Concussion Syndrome include troubles with attention, concentration, memory, reasoning, planning, understanding, speaking, and language. As a result of damage to the upper brain stem and frontal lobes, the abilities to act upon and register messages from the brain and the outside world are impaired (Stoler & Hill, 2013, p. 206). These attention and concentration problems could impact alertness to react upon information, the capacity of sustained attention, and the ability to focus on one thing. Memory problems, associated with damage to the complicated memory system in the brain, could include issues registering information, perceiving input from the environment, storing information, especially

Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviations, ranges) were calculated for demographic information regarding the athletes (i.e., age, height, weight, number of concussions). Separate logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the effects of post-concussion symptoms, the number of previous concussions, age at the time of examination, height and weight on the likelihood that athletes experience symptoms of imbalance and dizziness in the acute phase post-concussion. Statistical significance was evaluated using Wald test p values. Further, Pearson correlations were used to determine the relationship between acute symptoms post-concussion and performance on the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) composite scores (i.e., composite memory verbal, composite memory visual, composite

At the age of fourteen, I was the unfortunate recipient of four traumatic brain injuries within a six-month time frame, that would result in a diagnosis of post-concussive syndrome.

Patient is a 23-year-old right-hand white female who presents with her mother for evaluation of post concussive syndrome. She had two significant closed head injuries this winter in February. They both occurred while snowboarding. On the first one, she slipped on some ice fell back and hit her occiput. She was wearing a helmet. When she got down to the bottom of the hill, she noted she had some mild confusion. Her friend asked her where she fell and she was unable to recall exactly where in the course she fell. She had a mild headache and was sleepy the rest of that day. One week later, she had another strike to the occiput. Again, she was wearing a helmet. She did have a headache

After taking almost all of my eighth grade year battling concussions, I finally had a break at the end of my eight grade year. I felt really well the entire summer right before my ninth grade year. I made one of the most regrettable decisions of my life at the end of the summer. I decided to go with a group of friends to spend a weekend at the lake tubing. I did not realize at the time my brain was still susceptible to another y. brain injury. I went the entire weekend tubing on the lake and did not feel any symptoms; however, the next day I became very ill. I knew right away that I had re-concussed. Since this incident I have not been a 100%. I have suffered all of my high school career with post concussive syndrome. I have seen many Doctors

DOI: 6/23/2015. Patient is a 44-year-old male assembler who sustained injury while he was reaching for a part, pulled axle from rack and felt pain in the cervical spine. Per OMNI, the patient is diagnosed with acute cervical sprain and cervical radiculopathy.