Adolescent concussions--management guidelines for schools.

Our knowledge of concussions has increased and our treatment has changed substantially in recent years based on new research. Some of the major changes include the awareness that "minor head injuries," frequently called "bell-ringers or dings," are in fact concussions; many relatively minor head injuries take longer to heal than previously believed; concussions can occur without loss of consciousness, vomiting or other symptoms. Often times, headache, dizziness, "fogginess," poor attention span and unusual behavior are the signs of concussion. Another major change is the knowledge that thinking, "exercising the brain" and nearly all cognitive tasks have the same effect on prolonging concussion symptoms and slowing recovery as does physical exertion. Consequently, the management of even these minor head injuries has changed dramatically. Restricting mental exertion and physical exertion until asymptomatic and then gradually increasing each is the cornerstone of this treatment strategy.

Reduced time in bed and obstructive sleep-disordered breathing in children are associated with cognitive impairment.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine if reduced time in bed as well as the degree of obstructive sleep-disordered breathing predicted the risk of impaired cognitive function in children with adenotonsillar hypertrophy suspected of having obstructive sleep-disordered breathing. DESIGN: We studied 56 children, aged 6 to 12 years, with adenotonsillar hypertrophy referred for suspected obstructive sleep-disordered breathing. Children were given a sleep diary and underwent wrist actigraphy for 6 consecutive days and nights. On day 7, the children were given general cognitive tests, memory tests, and continuous performance tests followed by attended polysomnography that night. Parents completed snoring and behavior questionnaires. RESULTS: Shorter mean time in bed for 6 nights and a history of nightly snoring were highly predictive of lower scores for the vocabulary and similarities cognitive function tests. Children who had a mean time in bed of 557 minutes and did not snore nightly were predicted to have vocabulary and similarities scores more than 1 standard deviation higher than children who had a mean time in bed of 521 minutes and snored nightly. Shorter mean time in bed and the log of the apnea hypopnea index also predicted lower vocabulary and similarities scores. Greater night to night variability in time in bed was significantly predictive of lower vocabulary and similarities scores, but variability was not as predictive as mean time in bed. Neither mean time in bed nor the coefficient of variation of time in bed predicted other cognitive or behavioral scores. CONCLUSIONS: Short or variable time in bed and nightly snoring or higher apnea hypopnea index predicted impaired vocabulary and similarities scores in children with adenotonsillar hypertrophy suspected of having obstructive sleep-disordered breathing. The degree of cognitive impairment attributable to short time in bed and obstructive sleep-disordered breathing is clinically very significant.

Cognitive function and behavior of children with adenotonsillar hypertrophy suspected of having obstructive sleep-disordered breathing.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether risks of impaired cognitive function could be predicted for children or groups of children with adenotonsillar hypertrophy who were suspected of having obstructive sleep-disordered breathing, from historical and polysomnographic variables used separately or in combination. METHODS: We studied 114 consecutive 6- to 12-year-old children with adenotonsillar hypertrophy, who were referred because of suspected obstructive sleep-disordered breathing, with questionnaires, assessment of tonsil size, general and memory cognitive tests, and attended polysomnography with the use of nasal pressure recording to detect flow. RESULTS: There were important significant relationships between snore group (snored every night versus less often), sleep efficiency, and race and 2 of 3 general cognitive tests (vocabulary and similarities). Significant but weaker relationships were observed between sleep latency and 2 memory indices (verbal memory and general memory) and between sleep efficiency and 2 behavior indices (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder summary and hyperactive-impulsive summary). The number of episodes of apnea and hypopnea per 1 hour of sleep predicted the vocabulary score as well as did the snore group, but it did not predict other tests as well as other variables. Tonsil size did not predict any cognitive or behavior score. Confidence intervals for group means were small, whereas prediction intervals for individual children were large. CONCLUSIONS: Risk of impaired cognitive function and behavior can be predicted from snoring history, sleep efficiency, sleep latency, and race but not tonsil size. The combination of snoring history and polysomnographic variables predicted impaired cognitive scores better than did either alone. The snoring history predicted more test scores than the number of episodes of apnea and hypopnea per 1 hour of sleep.