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Sports-related concussions are complex injuries with serious potential for devastating consequences if mishandled. Further complicating this is the population most affected – young, otherwise healthy individuals with rapidly developing brains.
These patients often present to their primary care clinician, who may or may not feel comfortable making the difficult decisions these patients demand.
However, with the right tools, you can be confident in your clinical decisions. You’ll be able to sleep easy knowing you possess a strong ability to manage just about any sports-related concussion.
As an investigator of traumatic brain injury, a neurosurgery PA, and a medical writer, Jordan P. Roberts, PA-C has seen enough concussion to make your head spin (sorry). He frequently speaks and writes about topics related to concussion, neurologic health in sports-medicine, and neurosurgery for the primary care clinician. He is also passionate about the latest techniques and strategies to improve scientific medical communications and delivery.
Clinicians can use this page as a starting point to learn more about concussion, sports-related or otherwise.
There are a lot of misconceptions about the utility of diagnostic testing for concussion, even among seasoned healthcare providers. Potentially adding to the confusion is word of a new ‘concussion blood test’ approved in February 2018 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Here is everything you could possibly want to know about this test.
That article will show you exactly what is it, what the evidence behind it is, and most importantly, when to use it and when to forget about it.
Update (September 2018): new evidence is emerging. Don’t miss it.
Get the Answer with the PECARN Head Injury Clinical Decision Support Tool
Speaking of trying to diagnose concussions in the emergency room – there are decision tools you may want to consider using if you don’t already incorporate them in your practice. Learn how to quickly input one of the most well-validated of these tools into your brain right now.
Ten out of ten clinicians agree that is is easier than repeatedly banging your own head against a wall. The infographic has four slide-sized pages that tell you everything you need to know to get started using PECARN for your very next (applicable) patient. Click here to get the entire deck.
It may surprise you to learn that concussions have been a source of social controversy for centuries. Our knowledge of their deleterious effects is not limited to modern times, despite the seemingly sudden spike in public interest. Find out more in my talk or check out the infographic below.
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Prognosis: Your Diagnosis is a free medical education app that teaches with “gamification,” a process that makes learning fun by incorporating interactive features. Test your skills with this case of a young athlete who sustained a head injury in this case from Prognosis: Your Diagnosis.
Jordan P. Roberts, PA-C developed this particular case scenario in 2016 for the innovative medical education company Medical Joyworks. You can find countless more cases like this in every specialty.
Download the Medical Joyworks suite of apps so you can improve your knowledge base while making learning fun again. Available in the app store, Google Play or on the web.
Primary Care Reviews and Perspectives by Hippo Education is an entertaining, upbeat way to get all the CME you could ever want on everything primary care.
If you are wondering about the difference between sports-related concussions and non-sports-related concussions, hear Jordan lay it all out in chapter 34. You’ll need a subscription to access this chapter, but you can get $25 off by signing up through our affiliate link.
Not sure what the laws are in your state regarding sports-related concussions? If you take care of athletes with this condition, not knowing is not acceptable. Get up to speed with resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Sports Concussion Policies and Laws.
ImPACT Applications (what I use in my practice) also has a nice set of clinical concussion resources you may be interested to see. I/we have no financial relationship with this company.
Additionally, the CDC has developed new resources as of September of 2018. Get the guidelines, downloads, and more from the CDC here.
As promised, you can get the PDF version of my talk on the latest updates in concussion medicine by joining our email list. I’ve given this talk around the country and it’s always a crowd-pleaser.
My concussion talk delivered at the AAPA national conference in May of 2018 is embedded below.
You can also embed this deck on your website or social media account by visiting Slideshare, choosing “share” then “embed.” Copy and paste the code and that’s it!
Don’t forget to pick up the concussion symptom-scale and VOMS, the two best physical examination maneuvers for this pathology.
Also join our email list so you don’t miss more like these.
There are several versions of this in addition to the one I’ve made below. As you’ll see, symptoms are non-specific, but overall can give you a pretty important clue regarding the clinical trajectory to expect.
It’s helpful to have a baseline estimation in certain patients. Some clinicians will have patients complete this daily to get an idea of the overall trend of symptomatology over time.
What is VOMS?
The Vestibular Ocular Motor Screen (VOMS) is a simple to perform assessment for concussion. It evaluates several important pathways in the brain that can be affected by concussion.
You may want to watch this video of the VOMS in action (by its creator, no less!) before using the document below.
We are always adapting, updating, and refining the message when it comes to educating fellow clinicians about concussion (and neurological issues in general). The following is a living, breathing list of the most-cited references used to develop our most popular concussion presentations, articles, and posters, including everything you see on this page.
Feel free to double check our work and let us know if you have any questions.
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