Researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto recently published a study confirming what most athletes, brain injury lawyers, and safety advocates already knew: that “people who play contact sports show changes to their brain structure and function, with sports that have greater risk of body contact showing greater effects on the brain,” according to a hospital release.
The long-term health risks associated with concussions and frequent blows to the head, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease that was recently found in 99 per cent of deceased NFL football players’ brains, have been closely scrutinized by the media, healthcare, and legal communities over the past several years, as former professional football and hockey players launched lawsuits worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The St. Michael’s study, published in Frontiers of Neurology, included male and female varsity athletes participating in “collision” sports like hockey and football; “contact” sports like field hockey, basketball, and soccer; and “non-contact” sports such as volleyball. It found that participants in both collision and contact sports showed “differences in brain structure, function and chemical markers typically associated with brain injury” compared to non-contact athletes. All of the study participants were healthy and did not report any significant health issues.
For brain injury lawyers and other interested stakeholders, the study emphasized the risks associated with sports like basketball and soccer, which enjoy enormous popularity and are generally considered less dangerous than the high-impact alternatives. It also confirmed the importance of the Government of Canada’s recently issued guidelines on concussion in sports, released this July.
Developed by Parachute Canada, a national charitable organization dedicated to preventing injuries and saving lives, the Canadian Guideline on Concussion in Sport was developed to ensure every level and variety of athlete with a suspected concussion receives timely, appropriate care and proper management to allow them to return to their sport. It was assembled by an advisory committee made up of neurosurgeons, professors, researchers, and sports doctors, and aims to provide a set of best practices for anyone across Canada that interacts with athletes, including coaches, healthcare professionals, parents, and brain injury lawyers.
The guideline addresses seven important areas: pre-season education; head injury recognition; onsite medical assessment; medical assessment; concussion management; multidisciplinary concussion care; and return to sport. It is available in full here: http://www.parachutecanada.org/injury-topics/item/canadian-guideline-on-concussion-in-sport.
If you or a member of your family has suffered a serious brain or head injury, contact the brain injury lawyers at Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers today to arrange a free, no-obligation consultation. Our team can help you access compensation and move forward with your life.