Rehabilitation

Concussions and head injuries have been brought to the forefront of the sports medicine world over the past decade following the release of the movie “Concussion” in 2015 as well as new studies showing the long-term e ects of concussions in athletes. This new information has generated questions such as, “Will you allow your kids to play contact sports?” As clinicians, it is our responsibility to review the most recent literature to ensure that we are minimizing these post-concussive symptoms and returning athletes to the eld.

Leddy et al1., performed a randomized controlled study comparing the e ects of early targeted heart rate aerobic exercise versus placebo stretching for sports-related concussions in adolescents. The goal of the study was to determine if non-symptomatic aerobic exercise could reduce the risk of persistent post-concussive symptoms. There were 118 adolescents recruited for the study, of which 61 were randomly assigned to the aerobic exercise group and 57 to the stretching group.

The rehab protocol of the aerobic exercise group focused on at least 20 minutes of daily “subsymptom threshold aerobic exercise” within 10 days of a sports-related concussion. The exercise intensity was measured with heart rate monitors and consisted of machines such as stationary bike, elliptical and treadmill. Four weeks after the initial injury, patient outcomes were taken in relation to clinical recovery; Leddy et al1., used return to baseline symptoms and normal exercise tolerance as outcomes.

The results of the study show that the group randomly assigned to the aerobic exercise group were both more likely to recover within four weeks and had a 48% reduced risk of persistent post-concussive symptoms when compared to the stretching exercise group.