Injury Management Studies, Science and interesting developments

[frosty]

Couldn’t work out where to post this, so have created a topic for all things science and injury management, etc. This is an interesting way to try and science a solution to classifying potential concussion events.

Flashing mouthguards that signal a head injury will soon hit the rugby field...

[dingus]

Does anybody have definitive data on the effectiveness of lightweight sports headgear, like the type Caleb Daniel wears?

I’ve often wondered why the AFL hasn’t made them compulsory.

[frosty]

I have no idea. The suggestion years ago was they weren’t effective, but I don’t have any evidence either way.

[dingus]

It’s hard to find.

Perhaps my search terms are way off. I can only find studies on the helmet style gear, probably because of the overwhelming American-ness of the data.

[dingus]

I will say, anecdotally, I wore one playing rugby and it gave me the extra confidence I needed to get concussed a couple of times.

[need4speed]

@dingus

Does anybody have definitive data on the effectiveness of lightweight sports headgear, like the type Caleb Daniel wears?

I’ve had too many concussions unfortunately and going by drs word anyways was they would do little to nothing in the overall scheme of things as they aren’t preventing your brain moving around in your skull upon collision which is what we’re talking about. They might reduce chance of skull fracture but that’s about it.

[dingus]

I can’t imagine any kind of helmet would.

[need4speed]

Correct..Who knows what future tech might appear that can address it better, if such thing can exist.

[frosty]

I mean theoretically if you reduce the acceleration in the impact you reduce the brain moving around in the skull a little. Maybe a Phil Narkle helmet is more effective than a Caleb Daniel one.

[Chris_1993]

There is this one which showed no difference in concussion incidence among junior footballers who wore padded helmets or did not (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1440244021005326).

I don’t know what you’d have to search for more studies (if there are any), I only know this paper exists because I briefly worked with one of the authors around the time it was published.

[dingus]

@frosty

I mean theoretically if you reduce the acceleration in the impact you reduce the brain moving around in the skull a little. Maybe a Phil Narkle helmet is more effective than a Caleb Daniel one.

I am definitely amateur theorising here, but wouldn’t the whiplash action be more of a contributing factor than the strike at point of contact?

I guess if it’s like a crumple zone…?

Physics is hard

[theDJR]

I wish Essendon still had an academic specialising in concussions on staff.

[dingus]

That sounds particularly specific.

[theDJR]

I mean, it was literally his PhD.

Neurophysiological assessment of female Australian football players following...

One of his earlier papers:

https://academic.oup.com/cercor/article/31/12/5331/6306500

[frosty]

@dingus

@frosty

I mean theoretically if you reduce the acceleration in the impact you reduce the brain moving around in the skull a little. Maybe a Phil Narkle helmet is more effective than a Caleb Daniel one.

I am definitely amateur theorising here, but wouldn’t the whiplash action be more of a contributing factor than the strike at point of contact?

I guess if it’s like a crumple zone…?

Physics is hard

Nah, physics is easy. People are hard though

I have no idea about the specific loading that causes the concussion though, which is why the data collection from the mouthguards is so interesting when put alongside actual experience.

Long term if this was just a regular thing for everyone and it just synced to your phone after every match you could stack up piles of data that allow you to understand the cumulative effects. Alongside post mortem brain scans (or even better something that allows CTE diagnosis on live subjects) and actually work out what matters