The Effects of Subconcussive Head Impacts on Contact Sport Athletes – Sports-Related Concussion (SRC) Assessment Techniques

Overview

A subconcussive head impact is defined as a blow to the head that does not cause noticeable clinical signs or symptoms of concussion. Such events carry a latent potential for neurological damage and should be of particular concern in contact sports. Existing assessments for sports -related concussions (SRC) predominantly focus on explicit, self -reported symptoms and more obvious neurological impairments, leaving signs of subtle neurologic deficits largely undetected. Growing research illustrates that existing SRC evaluations lack sensitivity in identifying residual neurological impairments following head impacts. This study evaluated whether contact sport athletes exhibit signs of neurologic deficits immediately after suffering subconcussive blows when assessed with more precise tests. Nineteen boxers (contact athletes) were administered six tests before and after a competitive match, and nine swimmers (non-contact athletes) were assessed with the same tests before and after 20-30 minutes of high-intensity swimming to control for the possible confounding variable of fatigue. Three of the tests proved to be unreliable markers of soft neurologic signs or fatigue. For each of the reliable tests, the differences between swimmers and boxers were statistically significant, with box ers exhibiting signs of neurologic deficits following their match. The results suggest that fatigue does not impact an athlete’s ability to perform the administered assessments. Changes exhibited by boxers are attributable to subconcussive blows, indicatin g that these head impacts can cause immediate signs of neurologic deficits when athletes are assessed with more precise techniques. These results challenge the current definition of a subconcussive blow and support the improvement of SRC assessments.

Competition history

• JSHS 2024 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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