If you know someone who participates in sports, and experiences a head injury resulting in a concussion, there may be a cause for concern. Concussions can happen at any time, especially if someone is involved in a high impact sport such as football, hockey, or soccer. There is data that has uncovered an alarming number of head injuries and concussions. Prominent head injuries have been noted in professional sports such as football and hockey. Many questions have been raised about the safety and well-being of athletes who participate in high impact sports. Due to the limited availability and significant impact of concussion care, our physical therapists have become certified as Complete Concussion Management (CCMI) Clinicians and provide advance care in management and rehabilitation of concussions. Here at In Touch Physical Therapy, we are creating multidisciplinary care to use with our concussion patients. Our care is centered around specific treatment for the cervical spine, vestibular, visual, and cardiovascular system. We utilize evidence-based treatments that are for persistent concussion symptoms that include cervical spine treatment, vestibular rehabilitation, psychological interventions, a controlled symptom-threshold, and submaximal exercise. All of which can assist in acute concussion care whether it be a motor vehicle accident, fall or sports injury.
What is a Concussion?
A concussion is a brain injury caused by a vigorous, unnatural acceleration or deceleration of the brain. The impact causes trauma to the head and neck, which leads to a biochemical imbalance of the brain cells. The imbalance decreases the amount of blood flood, resulting with impaired energy deficits which can impair brain function. There is a wide range of symptoms that can be noted with concussions, including headache, fatigue, fogginess, sensitivity to light and sound, difficulty concentrating, or difficulty fixating your vision, to name a few. The length of recovery can vary, but even after symptoms have reduced, the risk of reinjury is still high, and if another hit to the head is sustained during this time of healing, the length of recovery can jump from 2-3 weeks to multiple months and even years.
Concussion Prevention
It's almost impossible to prevent concussions, but it is possible to reduce the risk. One of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce the risk of concussion is to wear a protective helmet. Along with wearing a helmet, it's crucial for athletes to learn neck-strengthening exercises. The strength and stability of the muscles of the neck and trunk will help minimize the impact of injuries and the likelihood (and severity) of concussions in high-impact sports. For those who are participants in sports programs, they can benefit from an evaluation from one of our physical therapists, who will help determine potential areas of weakness and instability. Information from the evaluation will help your physical therapist design a neck-strengthening program that can help avoid serious injury and possible concussions due to weak neck muscles. Testing can also be performed with the Complete Concussion Tracker app on your smart phone. This testing can be taken an unlimited number of times and can help assess the need for further care. The test is free on the app, and the results can be sent to the physical therapist or health professional to assess focus of care.
How Physical Therapy Can Help
As trained, multidisciplinary healthcare practitioners, our physical therapists can offer early intervention with a personalized approach to significantly improve recovery. They have an extensive, specialized background in concussion care and are certified in a complete concussion care program (CCMI) , allowing them the opportunity to create a strategy for care that could include nutrition intervention, vestibular rehabilitation, vision, exercise, and manual therapy, multimodal baseline testing. The sooner you are seen, the faster you will recover and discover the healing you need. Our CCMI training provides parameters for comprehensive preseason testing, return to play management, multistage physical exertion testing, and re-testing of injured individuals, and t4reatment of persistent symptoms. The test results are secure within the electronic health records system that is accessible by any Complete Concussion Management partnered clinic worldwide. Our facility will provide rehabilitation for chronic concussion symptoms as well, including headaches, vestibular/visual problems, cognitive impairments, etc. Seeing one of our therapists early on, will always decrease your likelihood of developing post- concussion syndrome, that may bring mental processing problems long after the date of the actual concussion injury. We invite you to search the Complete Concussion Management online to learn more about what we offer, as well as the program itself.
Call our office today if you have any further questions, or to schedule your appointment with one of our trained physical therapists, and we will be happy to help assist you with your return to the activities you love.