Abstract
Background: There is heterogeneity in neurosensory alterations following mild traumatic brain injury. Commonly assessed neurosensory symptoms following head injury include symptom reports and measures of oculomotor impairment, auditory changes, and vestibular impairment.Hypothesis/Purpose: Neurosensory alterations are prevalent acutely following mild traumatic brain injury secondary to blunt head trauma during collegiate varsity sports and may vary by sex and sport.Study Design: Retrospective study of a large collegiate athletic database.Methods: Analyses were performed using an established single University dataset of 177 male and female collegiate varsity athletes who were diagnosed with concussion/mild traumatic brain injury between September 2013 and October 2019. Descriptive and comparative analyses were performed on individual and grouped acute concussion assessments pertaining to neurosensory alterations obtained within 72 h of injury using components of the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool Version 5 and Vestibular/Ocular-Motor Screening.Results: Females had significantly more abnormal smooth pursuit (p-value: 0.045), convergence (p-value: 0.031), and visual motion sensitivity tests results (p-value: 0.023) than males. There were no differences in neurosensory alterations when grouped by overall auditory, vestibular, or oculomotor impairments. The majority of sports-related concussions occurred during football (50, 28.25%), wrestling (21, 11.86%), water polo (15, 8.47%), and basketball (14, 7.91%). Abnormal vestibular assessments were high in these top four sports categories, but statistically significant differences in overall auditory, vestibular, or oculomotor impairments were not reached by individual sport. However, water polo players had higher abnormal individual assessments related to balance reports on the sideline (60.00%, p-value: 0.045) and in the clinic setting (57.14%, p-value: 0.038) as compared to all other sports.Conclusion: While neurosensory alterations are prevalent in both male and female athletes acutely post-concussion, females have a higher incidence of abnormalities in smooth pursuit, convergence, and visual motion sensitivity and may benefit from early rehabilitation.
Highlights
Neurosensory alterations following blunt head trauma can be debilitating because sensory input informs how we interact with the world
Though outcomes of tests used for concussion assessment have been reported at varying time-points following injury, there is limited data reporting thematically-grouped neurosensory alterations using subjective and objective measures following acute blunt head injury resulting in sports-related concussion in men and women
We identified 177 varsity collegiate athletes diagnosed with sports-related concussion/mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) following blunt head injury from 2013 to 2019
Summary
Neurosensory alterations following blunt head trauma can be debilitating because sensory input informs how we interact with the world. Heterogeneity in neurosensory alterations following mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), including concussion, may be related to premorbid conditions, medications, injury-related factors, and other modifying factors such as co-existing injuries or intoxication [1, 2]. Some neurosensory-related symptoms are assessed in common post-concussion symptom scales and measures of vestibulo-oculomotor impairment following mild TBI in children and adults [3,4,5]. There is heterogeneity in neurosensory alterations following mild traumatic brain injury. Assessed neurosensory symptoms following head injury include symptom reports and measures of oculomotor impairment, auditory changes, and vestibular impairment. Hypothesis/Purpose: Neurosensory alterations are prevalent acutely following mild traumatic brain injury secondary to blunt head trauma during collegiate varsity sports and may vary by sex and sport
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