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Touchline • Issue 16 • 13
The effect varies from athlete to athlete, producing signs
that depend on which part of the brain has been affected.
Concussion signs visible to others at the time of the collision
include:
Loss of consciousness / unresponsiveness
Upper limb muscle rigidity
Upper limb spontaneous movement
Loss of overall body tone
Loss of control of the neck (“rag doll effect”)
A fit / seizure soon after contacting the surface
Balance difficulty
Slow responses
Vacant stare
Confusion
Disorientation
Holding the head
Facial injury
Speech slurring
Minutes to hours after the impact injury, the athlete can start
to feel unwell as a group of symptoms start to randomly
present themselves. The athlete may complain of a range of
symptoms such as headache, nausea / vomiting, blurred vision,
memory loss / difficulty, dizziness, tiredness, not feeling right
and intolerance of bright light and loud noise.
Days to weeks after the impact the athlete can still feel not
quite themselves. They can have difficulty with a number of
mood related feelings, which in combination, can lead to a
downward spiral in quality of life. As the injury cannot be
seen, these symptoms cause the athlete tremendous anxiety.
These can include difficulty in sleeping, persistent low grade
headaches, poor attention and concentration, being sad or
irritable or frustrated, they may become easily tired, lethargic,
have low motivation and display slow reaction times.
How common is concussion in sport?
A staggering 1.6 to 3.8 million concussions occur in sport each
year in the United States. Across football codes in Australia,
the probability of concussion is approximately 1 in 7. Whilst
concussion is more likely to occur in contact sports, such as
boxing, rugby, ice hockey and AFL, it can occur in almost all
sports where there is danger of the head coming into contact
with a solid object such as the ground or a wall, or equipment
such as goal posts, or another person.
WHAT SHOULD
ADMINISTRATORS DO?
FIGURE 1:
IMPACT FORCES TO THE BRAIN
HOW COMMON IS CONCUSSION
IN SPORT?
© DR RYAN KOHLER 2013 HERRON SPORTS CONCUSSION AUSTRALASIA
TM