In organized sports, there is always a risk of injury.
Arguably, concussions are the most concerning injury among all sports.
Last Friday night in the regular season opener for men’s basketball, PNC Arena fell silent when sophomore wing Maverick Rowan collided with a Georgia Southern defender.
Rowan was slow to get up, requiring assistance from teammates. Rowan stumbled to the bench with a dazed look. After the game, the guard/forward immediately entered the NCAA’s concussion protocol.
Experiencing concussion-like symptoms, Rowan was rightfully withheld from competing in Sunday’s matchup against the St. Francis Terriers.
Although the concussion tests came back negative, Rowan is resting because concussions are no easy fix.
Concussions are injuries that require extensive time to heal, and rightfully so. Players without a diagnosed concussion, but suffering from concussion-like symptoms, should not be rushed through recovery. Even though CT scans can show negative signs for head trauma, that does not mean the athlete is ready to play.
UNC-Chapel Hill’s Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center is doing wonders in concussion rehabilitation.
The Gfeller Center is named after Matthew Gfeller, a high school athlete who passed away, suffering a fatal traumatic brain injury in 2008 on the football field. The Gfeller Center hopes to prevent such injuries from happening to fellow athletes and positively impact the lives of other young people in Matthew’s memory.
Recovering from a head injury like a concussion can be tricky. According to UNC-CH’s concussion policy, “It has been demonstrated that it typically takes anywhere from three to 10 days for an athlete to return to their normal state following a concussion.”
However, the policy goes on to explain that this is not the case for all. Sometimes athletes can experience post-concussion symptoms beyond three weeks of the initial diagnosis.
The Matthew Gfeller Center has many ongoing research projects devoting time to the effectiveness of concussion rehabilitation, and the effects following recovery.
Elizabeth F. Teel* of UNC is working on research involving “The Effect of Concussion Rehabilitation in Mitigating Prolonged Recovery,” according to the Matthew Gfeller Center’s website.*
The goal of Teel’s research is to develop early-implementation rehabilitation programs.
The center’s website explains that Teel hopes “to create individualized rehabilitation strategies that target multiple domains simultaneously and are started earlier in the recovery process.”*
The Matthew Gfeller Center and UNC-CH Department of Neurology are making leaps in terms of bringing athletes back from injury faster and safer, especially for younger athletes.
However, the Gfeller Center’s most intriguing ongoing research project is focusing on preventing head injuries.
Head researcher Dr. Kevin M. Guskiewicz is working on a project called “Innovative Behavior Modification Strategies to Reduce Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Risk in High School Football Athletes.” The goal of the research is to reduce the risk of concussion for high school football players.
According to the center’s website, Guskiewicz and fellow researchers aim to implement a behavioral intervention program which will reduce the probability of head trauma. This testing will take place over a three-year period, sampling approximately 240 high school athletes.
Each football player will have an accelerometer attached to their helmet to measure how fast the helmet accelerates and decelerates during impact. The data will be recorded during games and practices throughout the season.
Also, the games will be recorded and used to correct the player’s form when impacting another player. The data and footage will be used to teach the athlete to use correct technique when engaging in contact without risking head injury. The researchers will instruct the team’s athletic trainers and coaches, to sit down with groups of players and explain to them the correct method of tackling and why it is the safer alternative.
It is important that trainers and coaches teach athletes that a concussion is no joking matter. Both prevention and recovery is essential in ensuring the athlete’s safety. If we as sports fans can promote the Gfeller center’s research, the youth athletes will follow suit.
For more information on the Matthew Gfeller Center and Matthew Gfeller Foundation, visit http://tbicenter.unc.edu/index.html.
A version of this article appeared in print on Nov. 17, 2016 on page 14 with the headline: UNC leads concussion research
*Editor’s Note: This article initially referred to Elizabeth F. Teel with an incorrect title and misattributed the quotes taken from the Matthew Gfeller Center’s website.
Pictured on the right is a CT scan after a traumatic brain injury.
