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Children’s Hospital Boston’s Concussion and Sports Clinic opened last year to diagnose and treat children and young adults with concussions sustained primarily from sports-related injuries. It’s critical that patients are evaluated after sustaining a concussion or head injury: If children are cleared to return to sports but have not recovered normal brain function, a second concussion is more likely, more serious and, in rare cases, fatal.
Most children will fully recover from a sports-related concussion within days to weeks. However, some take months to recover completely. Children who get a second concussion before being fully recovered are at risk for serious, long-term problems. Children who have already sustained a concussion are at greater risk for subsequent concussions; the highest risk is within 10 days of sustaining the first one. The effects are actually cumulative, so each concussion causes more severe symptoms and requires longer recovery times.
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- Children’s Concussion and Sports Clinic treats primarily
sport-related concussions and concussions with a similar
mechanism to that seen in sports.
- Our team tracks all stages of concussion and guides athletes
back to their original function so that they may be cleared to
play sports again.
- Doctors conduct a physical examination, balance assessment
and neuropsychological testing to evaluate cognitive function
and reaction time, which may include a computerized test
and/or written evaluation.
- We offer baseline neuropsychological testing so we can
have a record of a patient’s normal brain function so that,
should he later sustain a concussion, we can test him after
injury and monitor his recovery.
- Physical and cognitive rest is the main treatment. We remove the child from athletics and other activities that pose a risk of additional injury until he’s completely recovered, and monitorhis progress
- When appropriate, we treat symptoms medically.
- Days, weeks or months after a mild or moderate head injury or concussion, a child may experience pain, headaches, trouble sleeping or behavior problems. Some patients may require further care in our Brain Injury Clinic.
- In partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital, we’re developing a model of concussion in mice that simulates concussive brain injury and using it to test therapeutic agents that alleviate its effects.
- We have three ongoing clinical trials; one looks at the time it takes younger vs. older children to recover from concussions. Another examines the effects of cognitive rest on concussions. A third uses imaging of patients whose symptoms persist.
Within one week of calling our office, most patients will have an appointment. It’s important that an athlete who has sustained a concussion or head injury see a doctor. Contact us at 617-355-8597.
Pierre d’Hemecourt, MD, FACSM
Director, Primary Care Sports Medicine
Bill Meehan, MD
Fellow, Primary Care Sports Medicine
Michelle Parker, MS, CP, NP
Nurse Practitioner, Brain Injury Clinic
Mark Proctor, MD
Neurosurgeon, Department of Neurosurgery
Dave Mooney, MD, MPH
Director, Trauma Program, Department of Surgery
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