Football and Traumatic Brain Injury

Football is a very macho sport. Athletes are taught to play through pain. And many times, concussions are not taken seriously and school-age athletes are encouraged—and allowed—to return to play before full recovery. This leaves them susceptible to a more significant injury including a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

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High School versus College Sports

High school football players have more than three times the risk of a catastrophic TBI than their college peers, says Barry P. Boden, MD, from the Orthopedic Center in Rockville, Md., and adjunct associate professor at the Uniform Services University of the Health Science in Bethesda, Md. The most worrisome finding to Boden and his colleagues regarding TBI’s is that 59% of these athletes had a prior mild head injury, with 71% occurring during the same season.

Boden theorizes on the discrepancy between high school and college sports: High school students who have a TBI might take longer to recover from a concussion than college players. Another reason may be that there aren’t as many team physicians covering high school games as college games. And some high school athletes with TBI may not be properly evaluated or receive medical attention. Other possible reasons may be:

• Brain is not fully developed
• Younger players have not yet developed proper strategies to avoid TBIs

Types of Traumatic Brain Injuries

A traumatic brain injury occurs when an external force traumatically injures the brain. The force can compress or damage delicate brain tissue depending on what type of brain injury results. In addition to sports, causes can include falls, vehicle accidents and violence.

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