Proceedings From the Ice Hockey Summit III: Action on Concussion.

OBJECTIVES: The Ice Hockey Summit III provided updated scientific evidence on concussions in hockey to inform these 5 objectives: (1) describe sport related concussion (SRC) epidemiology; (2) classify prevention strategies; (3) define objective, diagnostic tests; (4) identify treatment; and (5) integrate science and clinical care into prioritized action plans and policy. METHODS: Our action plan evolved from 40 scientific presentations. The 155 attendees (physicians, athletic trainers, physical therapists, nurses, neuropsychologists, scientists, engineers, coaches, and officials) voted to prioritize these action items in the final Summit session. RESULTS: To (1) establish a national and international hockey database for SRCs at all levels; (2) eliminate body checking in Bantam youth hockey games; (3) expand a behavior modification program (Fair Play) to all youth hockey levels; (4) enforce game ejection penalties for fighting in Junior A and professional hockey leagues; (5) establish objective tests to diagnose concussion at point of care; and (6) mandate baseline testing to improve concussion diagnosis for all age groups. CONCLUSIONS: Expedient implementation of the Summit III prioritized action items is necessary to reduce the risk, severity, and consequences of concussion in the sport of ice hockey.

Proceedings from the Ice Hockey Summit III: Action on Concussion.

The Ice Hockey Summit III provided updated scientific evidence on concussions in hockey to inform these five objectives: 1) describe sport-related concussion (SRC) epidemiology, 2) classify prevention strategies, 3) define objective, diagnostic tests, 4) identify treatment, and 5) integrate science and clinical care into prioritized action plans and policy. Our action plan evolved from 40 scientific presentations. The 155 attendees (physicians, athletic trainers, physical therapists, nurses, neuropsychologists, scientists, engineers, coaches, and officials) voted to prioritize these action items in the final Summit session. 1) Establish a national and international hockey data base for SRC at all levels, 2) eliminate body checking in Bantam youth hockey games, 3) expand a behavior modification program (Fair Play) to all youth hockey levels, 4) enforce game ejection penalties for fighting in Junior A and professional hockey leagues, 5) establish objective tests to diagnose concussion at point of care (POC), and 6) mandate baseline testing to improve concussion diagnosis for all age groups. Expedient implementation of the Summit III prioritized action items is necessary to reduce the risk, severity, and consequences of concussion in the sport of ice hockey.

Brain vital signs detect concussion-related neurophysiological impairments in ice hockey.

There is a growing demand for objective evaluations of concussion. We developed a portable evoked potential framework to extract 'brain vital signs' using electroencephalography. Brain vital signs were derived from well established evoked responses representing auditory sensation (N100), basic attention (P300), and cognitive processing (N400) amplitudes and latencies, converted to normative metrics (six total). The study evaluated whether concussion-related neurophysiological impairments were detected over the duration of ice hockey seasons using brain vital signs. Forty-seven Tier III, Junior A, male ice hockey players were monitored over two seasons. Twelve sustained concussions after baseline testing then completed post-injury and return-to-play assessments. Twenty-three were not diagnosed with a concussion during the season and completed both baseline and post-season testing. Scores were evaluated using a repeated-measures analysis of variance with post hoc two-tailed paired t-tests. Concussion resulted in significantly increased amplitude and delayed latency scores for all six brain vital signs (P < 0.0001). Importantly, significant changes at return-to-play were also detected in basic attention (P300) amplitude, indicating persistent subclinical impairment. In the non-concussed group, there was also a significant change between baseline and post-season (P = 0.0047), with specific decreases in cognitive processing (N400) speed (P = 0.011) and overall total score (P = 0.002).

Concussion in Ice Hockey: Current Gaps and Future Directions in an Objective Diagnosis.

OBJECTIVE: This review provides an update on sport-related concussion (SRC) in ice hockey and makes a case for changes in clinical concussion evaluation. Standard practice should require that concussions be objectively diagnosed and provide quantitative measures of the concussion injury that will serve as a platform for future evidence-based treatment. METHODS: The literature was surveyed to address several concussion-related topics: research in ice hockey-related head trauma, current subjective diagnosis, promising components of an objective diagnosis, and current and potential treatments. MAIN RESULTS: Sport-related head trauma has marked physiologic, pathologic, and psychological consequences for athletes. Although animal models have been used to simulate head trauma for pharmacologic testing, the current diagnosis and subsequent treatment in athletes still rely on an athlete's motivation to report or deny symptoms. Bias-free, objective diagnostic measures are needed to guide quantification of concussion severity and assessment of treatment effects. Most of the knowledge and management guidelines of concussion in ice hockey are generalizable to other contact sports. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for an objective diagnosis of SRC that will quantify severity, establish a prognosis, and provide effective evidence-based treatment. Potential methods to improve concussion diagnosis by health care providers include a standardized concussion survey, the King-Devick test, a quantified electroencephalogram, and blood analysis for brain cell-specific biomarkers.

Does fair play reduce concussions? A prospective, comparative analysis of competitive youth hockey tournaments.

BACKGROUND/AIM: To determine if Boys Bantam and Peewee and Girls U14 sustain fewer concussions, head hits, 'other injuries' and penalties in hockey tournaments governed by intensified fair play (IFP) than non-intensified fair play (NIFP). METHODS: A prospective comparison of IFP, a behaviour modification programme that promotes sportsmanship, versus control (non-intensified, NIFP) effects on numbers of diagnosed concussions, head hits without diagnosed concussion (HHWDC), 'other injuries', number of penalties and fair play points (FPPs). 1514 players, ages 11-14 years, in 6 IFP (N=950) and 5 NIFP (N=564) tournaments were studied. RESULTS: Two diagnosed concussions, four HHWDC, and six 'other injuries' occurred in IFP tournaments compared to one concussion, eight HHWDC and five 'other injuries' in NIFP. There were significantly fewer HHWDC in IFP than NIFP (p=0.018). However, diagnosed concussions, 'other injuries', penalties and FPPs did not differ significantly between conditions. In IFP, a minority of teams forfeited the majority of FPPs. Most diagnosed concussions, HHWDC, and other injuries occurred to Bantam B players and usually in penalised teams that forfeited their FPPs. CONCLUSIONS: In response to significant differences in HHWDC between IFP and NIFP tournaments, the following considerations are encouraged: mandatory implementation of fair play in regular season and tournaments, empowering tournament directors to not accept heavily penalised teams, and introducing 'no body checking' in Bantam.

Developing Brain Vital Signs: Initial Framework for Monitoring Brain Function Changes Over Time.

Clinical assessment of brain function relies heavily on indirect behavior-based tests. Unfortunately, behavior-based assessments are subjective and therefore susceptible to several confounding factors. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs), derived from electroencephalography (EEG), are often used to provide objective, physiological measures of brain function. Historically, ERPs have been characterized extensively within research settings, with limited but growing clinical applications. Over the past 20 years, we have developed clinical ERP applications for the evaluation of functional status following serious injury and/or disease. This work has identified an important gap: the need for a clinically accessible framework to evaluate ERP measures. Crucially, this enables baseline measures before brain dysfunction occurs, and might enable the routine collection of brain function metrics in the future much like blood pressure measures today. Here, we propose such a framework for extracting specific ERPs as potential "brain vital signs." This framework enabled the translation/transformation of complex ERP data into accessible metrics of brain function for wider clinical utilization. To formalize the framework, three essential ERPs were selected as initial indicators: (1) the auditory N100 (Auditory sensation); (2) the auditory oddball P300 (Basic attention); and (3) the auditory speech processing N400 (Cognitive processing). First step validation was conducted on healthy younger and older adults (age range: 22-82 years). Results confirmed specific ERPs at the individual level (86.81-98.96%), verified predictable age-related differences (P300 latency delays in older adults, p < 0.05), and demonstrated successful linear transformation into the proposed brain vital sign (BVS) framework (basic attention latency sub-component of BVS framework reflects delays in older adults, p < 0.05). The findings represent an initial critical step in developing, extracting, and characterizing ERPs as vital signs, critical for subsequent evaluation of dysfunction in conditions like concussion and/or dementia.