Author Affiliations: Department of Family Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis.
A young athlete collides with an opponent. The play ends. The athlete
walks from the field of play in an unsteady fashion. The medical staff begins
the process of assessment. And the questions begin: Are you OK? What's wrong?
How many fingers? What do you remember?"
After the assessment is complete, decisions are made. Initially, the
question is, should the athlete be returned to play? Other questions routinely
follow: How should the injury be handled? What's likely to occur with the
individual in the ensuing hours and days? Can clinicians intercede to speed
the process of recovery and rehabilitation? And finally, the most important
question: What's the "right" thing to do in this situation?
McKeag DB. Understanding Sports-Related ConcussionComing Into Focus but Still Fuzzy. JAMA. 2003;290(19):2604-2605. doi:10.1001/jama.290.19.2604