Sports

Heads Up! What You Should Know About Youth Sports Concussions

Dr. Stephanie Arlis-Mayor of Center for Orthopaedics who offers primary care sports medicine lectured about youth sports concussions at the James Blackstone Memorial library.

Imagine if your child sustained a concussion but didn’t tell you. A female lacrosse player, who is a patient of Dr. Stephanie Arlis-Mayor of the Center for Orthopaedics, was the recent victim of such an injury. Arlis-Mayor explained that on a Monday, this lacrosse player sustained a concussion but kept playing her game and attending school. By Thursday, said, Arlis-Mayor, the student-athlete was running the wrong way on the field during a game­. By then, said Arlis-Mayor, her injury was exacerbated and her recovery could take longer than if she had been given attention for her concussion immediately after the incident.

Said over and over again, Arlis-Mayor could not emphasize enough: “It’s better to miss one game than the whole season.”

Arlis-Mayor for about an hour to a small gathering of people at the , mostly parents of student-athletes, about the signs and symptoms of concussions and best treatment methods.

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One of the most important points was the nature and definition of a concussion. Though many people in attendance believed a concussion involves bleeding on the brain, Arlis-Mayor explained that the two are different. A concussion is a brain injury that changes the way a brain normally works. Most concussions, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, occur without the loss of consciousness (see PDFs attached).

According to Arlis-Mayor, who has worked with many area athletes including those in New Haven Public Schools and the Greater New Haven Warriors (youth ice hockey team from Northford), the five “Rs” of concussions are key to a successful rebound:

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Recognize: Those injured should recognize that a concussion has occurred. It’s important, tells Arlis-Mayor, that parents and coaches look for signs of concussions in youth athletes soon as they happen.

Remove: Soon as an athlete shows signs of a concussion or sustains an injury that may lead to symptoms, he or she should be removed from game play.

Refer: Parents and coaches should refer an injured athlete to healthcare provider immediately.

Rest: Concussion victims should have as much rest as possible. Arlis-Mayor said three days in a dark room, no matter the severity of concussion, can make a world of a difference in recovery time.  Recovering athletes should have very limited access to “screen time,” with 15 to 30 minutes “on” and one hour off. Arlis-Mayor said exposure to bright screens like televisions and video games should be avoided.

Return: The goal, though many student-athletes believe otherwise, is to get the injured players back in the game, said Arlis-Mayor. “This is all about keeping them playing,” said Arlis-Mayor.

In attendance at the lecture was Madison resident, Sara Analoui who swims for . Analoui sustained a concussion in October, 2010, when she was doing backstroke sprints, miscounted her flip-turn and banged her head. Analoui said her father, Mostafa Analoui, noticed she was having trouble studying and that’s when they began to suspect a concussion.

It took Analoui one week of bed rest with no lights and limited access to stimuli for her to make a recovery–her total time out of sports, because her concussion was not diagnosed immediately, was about four months.

Stating that she feels not enough of her fellow students know enough about concussions, Analoui, armed with her notepad said, “I want to be an advocate in the community because I don’t want another student to wait as long as I did.”

One of the biggest factors in not diagnosing concussions said, Arlis-Mayor, is lying; parents, coaches and athletes lie about symptoms. In order to ensure that athletes are ready to return to activity, Arlis-Mayor said baseline testing, like ImPACT can help determine the cognitive ability of a concussion victim but is not the sole measure of recovery. (Branford schools do not use this testing, but you can see who does in the state here.) Symptom observation through administering physical tests like balancing, help doctors and trainers determine if post-concussive athletes are ready to return to play. Returning too early, said Arlis-Mayor, places victims at a higher risk for a second concussion and at a higher risk of not recovering from the subsequent head injury.

As Arlis-Mayor spoke, Cindy Sorrentino, a mother to three athletes and one Branford High School football player, asked if the coaches were aware of concussion facts and post-concussion care?

According to the Connecticut Concussion Law (see Public Act No. 10-62 in attached PDF) passed in the summer of 2010, all state coaches (those in public schools) have to be educated about concussions. To date, 14,000 coaches in the state have received their certification.

Here in Branford, Co-Athletic Director Jake Palluzzi said he and his staff have taken a course available on the CIAC website and also receive an annual seminar by Dr. Richard Young (this year’s lecture will be given in June).

Close to the subject in his career, Palluzzi also understands the importance of caring for concussions on a personal level. Palluzzi’s daughter Tess Palluzzi, a seventh-grader at recently sustained a concussion when she fell from a high beam during gymnastic practice. His daughter, said, Pallizzi, has been out of practice for three months. “We didn’t know the impact,” he said.

A Junior Olympian, Palluzzi said his daughter was devastated by her injury and has had a long recovery. She has had to reduce her schooling hours and has not been able to practice. “Unfortunately,” said Palluzzi, “gymnastics like football­–there’s going to be a lot of injuries.”

Though Arlis-Mayor stated, “If you love your kids, don’t let them play football,” this high-impact sport is not the only one where concussions occur. Head injuries, said Arlis-Mayor, are likely to happen when an athlete’s head makes contact with the ground. Contrary to popular belief, she said, heading a soccer ball is not a leading cause of a concussion; when two people head the soccer ball at the same time, said Arlis-Mayor, that’s the problem.

Both Palluzzi and Arlis-Mayor offer the same advice for concussion victims: seek health care attention and listen to the provider’s instructions.

Palluzzi said he’s aware of the growing concern from the community about the risk of concussions in youth sports, but said that on the high school level he only sees about a handful of reported concussions a year. With more awareness about the head injury, Palluzzi said, “It’s something we take very seriously.”

When asked if he would let his daughter return to gymnastics, he said he would if she wanted to. “I don’t think anyone should tell their kid not to do that,” said Palluzzi. “I would let them play anything they wanted to and then be proactive if there is an injury.”


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