Non-head injuries may impact thinking skills: study

29.07.2011 [11:59]
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Baku, July 29 (AZERTAC). A blow to the head isn`t the only injury that can make a football player a little slow and confused. A sprained ankle or strained knee might also affect how athletes perform on a computer-based test of attention, memory, and reaction time generally used to manage concussions, according to new research.

That means trainers and team doctors should rely on talking to athletes about concussion symptoms when they`re trying to decide the seriousness of a head injury -- not just on the computer-based test, researchers said.

"With every athlete when we evaluate them on the sidelines...it`s getting an idea of what`s going on with that player, how they`re feeling, what symptoms they may have," said Dr. Mark Halstead, a sports doctor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who wasn`t involved in the new study.

Doctors have become increasingly concerned in recent years about the consequences of concussions, especially in young athletes.

The head injuries can cause dizziness, memory problems, and trouble paying attention, which usually goes away within a few weeks. But when athletes try to come back from the blow too quickly, they risk a rare but dangerous condition, called "second impact syndrome," which happens when someone sustains a second head injury before the first is completely healed.

One way that doctors manage concussions -- and decide when athletes are ready to return to play -- is by using a computer-based test that measures a person`s speed and accuracy on word, symbol, and pattern problems. A poor performance on the test gives doctors a hint that the athlete might still be suffering the effects of a head injury.

For the current study, researchers at the University of Toronto gave the 20-minute computer test to 72 student-athletes, including football, hockey, and lacrosse players. Eighteen of those athletes had suffered a concussion in the past three days, and another 18 had been taken out recently by a muscle or tendon injury. The other 36, used for comparison, were uninjured.

As expected, the head-injured athletes did worse than non-injured athletes, with slower reaction times and worse memory and attention. But those who had sustained a muscle or tendon injury also did worse than the healthy comparison group on some of the tests -- and their scores generally fell in between the scores of non-injured and head-injured athletes.

Non-head injuries may impact thinking skills: study

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