ABSTRACT
The authors enrolled 95 patients in a primary care office who presented with a concussion. Of these patients, 63% were sport concussions. The authors matched 90 of these patients to children in the authors' practice presenting for sports physicals or regular check-ups in the following demographics: age, participating in a particular sport, having attention-deficit disorder/attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, gender, and grade. The authors found the odds of recurrent concussions, in a primary care pediatric office, to be a ratio of 2.909 (95% confidence interval 1.228-7.287). Recovery time for repeat concussion versus an initial concussion was analyzed. Patients with a recurrent concussion after a year recovered an average of 12.0 days after injury versus 13.4 days for those with no previous concussion (NS). Patients with a recurrent concussion within a year recovered a mean of 6.27 (SD 1.29) days sooner than patients with no previous concussion (P < .0001). This unexpected finding is preliminary, and the authors encourage further research.
Subject(s)
Brain Concussion , Recovery of Function , Adolescent , Athletic Injuries/complications , Brain Concussion/etiology , Brain Concussion/therapy , Child , Female , Humans , Male , Odds Ratio , Pediatrics , Primary Health Care , Recurrence , Time Factors , Young AdultABSTRACT
Immediate cognitive and physical rest in the concussed patient is almost universally recommended in the concussion literature. The authors conducted a prospective observational in a primary care pediatric office to examine the effect of delayed cognitive and physical rest had on recovery time in pediatric concussion. The authors found that patients who started cognitive and physical rest immediately after injury were more likely to recover within 30 days compared to patients who delayed cognitive and physical rest for 1-7 days after their injury (67% vs 35%, P = .016). Within the group of patients who recovered within 30 days those with immediate cognitive and physical rest recovered 4.6 days sooner than those with delayed cognitive and physical rest (10.29 ± 5.83 vs 14.42 ± 6.15 days, P = .005). These data support the recommendation that cognitive and physical rest should be implemented immediately after injury in concussed patients.
