{"id":38993,"date":"2016-03-16T19:05:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T00:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=38993"},"modified":"2016-03-16T19:05:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T00:05:00","slug":"head-case-concussion-collaboration-tries-to-reduce-brain-trauma-in-college-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/head-case-concussion-collaboration-tries-to-reduce-brain-trauma-in-college-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"Head case: Concussion collaboration tries to reduce brain trauma in college athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tolly Taylor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Geoff Mogus walked to the sideline after a blow to the head sent a \u201ctingling, burning sensation\u201d from his head to his toes.<\/p>\n

A concerned trainer told him, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to let me know if you\u2019re not feeling well. It\u2019s not worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the Northwestern University left guard reentered the November game for the final two drives of the half.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took it upon myself to keep playing,\u201d said Mogus, who didn\u2019t want to let his teammates down.<\/p>\n

In the locker room at halftime, he threw up. The team doctor said he was done. He would later learn he had suffered his fifth concussion in five years, his final college game a 23-21 win over Penn State.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty routine hit,\u201d Mogus said. \u201cThe hit was one I\u2019ve taken a lot of times and been absolutely fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Athletes like Mogus are the reason the Big Ten and Ivy League formed the Traumatic Brain Injury Research Collaboration, which lets them work with 17,500 athletes across both conferences. The Ivies led the charge, announcing five years ago that football teams would be limited to two contact practices per week. More recently, on March 1, they eliminated full-contact practices during the regular season. They\u2019re even considering new rules for kickoffs because \u201ca high percentage of concussions\u201d occur during returns, said Carolyn Campbell-McGovern, the Ivy League representative on the TBI Research Collaboration Project Board.<\/p>\n

Officials at the 4-year-old collaboration declined to reveal their budget but said a quarter of it is going toward educating players, said Kerry Kenny, the Big Ten representative on the collaboration board. \u201cIt should be OK to report concussions. There shouldn\u2019t be a stigma attached to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mogus praised Northwestern\u2019s protocol, but his words following his fifth concussion reveal the stigma still remains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fine, I\u2019m OK, I just got my bell rung,\u201d Mogus said he told himself. \u201c[But then] I couldn\u2019t go back, and I just remember being devastated because my team physician said if I got one more [concussion], then that would probably be it. And so that was all I was really thinking about. Just letting the team down and not being able to go out and finish the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Concussion_Anatomy\"
A concussion happens when brain tissue quickly accelerates or decelerates, causing it to change shape. This stretches and sometimes damages brain cells (Wikimedia Commons).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though Mogus didn\u2019t try to hide his head injuries, many players do. Already, they\u2019re learning if they sit out after a blow to the head, they\u2019re not letting their teammates down, Kenny said.<\/p>\n

Science should also be able to help.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Today] we only base the \u2018diagnosis\u2019 on symptoms,\u201d said Dr. Doug Smith, the collaboration\u2019s scientific director.<\/p>\n

But Smith and other researchers are trying to create an on-the-field blood test that would quickly identify proteins released during brain trauma.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We would see] this person has axons that are degenerating, which is permanent brain damage, and that we have evidence of that right in their blood,\u201d said Smith, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania. \u201cBut basically we\u2019re only in the experimental stage right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

To improve examinations today, former Harvard football player Chris Nowinski, a founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation and adviser to the collaboration, wants more schools to use the 40-year-old King-Devick test. It compares how long it takes athletes to read single-digit numbers at the beginning of the season vs. after a suspected head injury.<\/p>\n

\"concussion-2\"
Chris Nowinski and researchers examine a brain scan at Boston University (courtesy of Chris Nowinski).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s the one that we expect [the Big Ten and Ivy League] to be adopting over the next year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For now, both conferences have left it up to individual schools to decide which protocol to use.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have an agreed upon baseline test,\u201d said Campbell-McGovern. \u201cI think there are a few different ones out there. They\u2019re all doing something, but I\u2019m not sure which ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most schools in the Ivy League and the Big Ten use ImPACT, a 25-minute computerized evaluation system that measures attention span, problem solving and reaction time. But as Mogus\u2019 situation showed, it\u2019s far from perfect.<\/p>\n

Following each of his five concussions, Mogus said Northwestern required him to check in with a trainer every day. For about a week and a half, he felt tired, nauseous and sensitive to light. After 24 hours without these symptoms, he would take the ImPACT test and a balance test. If he passed them, he would have to exercise for 30 minutes to an hour without any side effects. Then he would need clearance from a team physician and an independent neurosurgeon. Then he would have to go through one non-contact practice before being allowed to return to regular practices.<\/p>\n

The problem with the system: \u201cIt\u2019s the same protocol for every concussion, no matter how severe it is,\u201d Mogus said. \u201cI beat my personal best [on the ImPACT test], and then I took my balance test and set a new record on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He forgot the name of a subsequent four-hour test at a Chicago hospital that showed he hadn\u2019t fully recovered from his fifth concussion.<\/p>\n

But he remembered what his longtime neurosurgeon, Dr. Julian Bailes, told him that day: \u201cYour short-term memory isn\u2019t back to where it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their hour-long visit shook Mogus. Bailes never said he couldn\u2019t play in the NFL, but he reminded Mogus he didn\u2019t need to rely on football. He went to a good school. He had a good GPA.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt puts things in perspective,\u201d Mogus said. \u201cYou know, guys always joke with me, saying I\u2019ll be able to remember who I am when I\u2019m 40 now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Every year 4 million to 5 million people suffer concussions in the U.S. (Wikimedia Commons).<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tolly Taylor Geoff Mogus walked to the sideline after a blow to the head sent a \u201ctingling, burning sensation\u201d from his head to his toes. A concerned trainer told him, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to let me know if you\u2019re not feeling well. It\u2019s not worth it.\u201d Still, the Northwestern University left guard reentered the November […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":236,"featured_media":39001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,585],"tags":[901,1373,1370,2505,1113,435,192],"class_list":["post-38993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-winter-2016","tag-big-ten","tag-chris-nowinski","tag-concussion","tag-ivy-league","tag-nfl","tag-northwestern-university","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"\nHead case: Concussion collaboration tries to reduce brain trauma in college athletes - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/head-case-concussion-collaboration-tries-to-reduce-brain-trauma-in-college-athletes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Head case: Concussion collaboration tries to reduce brain trauma in college athletes - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Tolly Taylor Geoff Mogus walked to the sideline after a blow to the head sent a \u201ctingling, burning sensation\u201d from his head to his toes. 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