Recovery from concussion could take up to 28 days – double the previous suggested recovery time, new research has revealed.
The study, the largest concussion research project ever conducted in US college athletes, reveals that the accepted recovery period of up to 14 days may not be sufficient to properly protect athletes.
“Normal return-to-play time was previously set at 14 days – meaning 50 per cent of people recovered in that time,” said the project’s lead researcher Steve Broglio, director of the University of Michigan Concussion Center.
“Our paper suggests that 28 days more fully encapsulates the recovery process. At that point, 85 per cent of people have returned to play.”
The study found that though median recovery times were consistent with the previously suggested 14 days, it was not until one month post-injury that most athletes were cleared for unrestricted sport participation.
Coaches, parents and athletes should reframe their expectations for return to play, said Dr Broglio, in part to avoid stigmatising concussed athletes who take longer than 14 days to recover.
Reframing the normal recovery time to 28 days helps eliminate unintentional social pressure from teammates, coaches or parents who hope to see their player back on the field.
The study included 34,709 male and female athletes from 30 colleges and universities—more than 1,700 of whom were concussed while participating in 22 sports.
Concussed male athletes most commonly played American football (54.7 per cent), football (10.7 per cent), basketball (6.8 per cent) and wrestling (6.4 per cent), while concussed female athletes most commonly played football (23.4 per cent), volleyball (14 per cent), basketball (12.9 per cent) and lacrosse (8.4 per cent).
Dr Broglio said male and female athletes took about the same amount of time to recover from concussion, give or take a day.
Concussion education and treatment has improved dramatically in the last two decades, he said.
“Back when I started in concussion research 20 years ago, we’d manage these injuries with a light switch,” said Dr Broglio.
“We’d ask, ‘Do you have symptoms?’ and if the answer was no, the athlete was put back on the field. Gone are the days when concussed athletes are put back in the same day.
“Now, we can think of it as a dial, where we slowly progress people back into the sport.
“Once a player is asymptomatic, it can still take some time. We have to respect the injury and respect the recovery process.”
Despite increased research in concussion over the previous decade, the trajectory of concussion recovery times across diverse populations of athletes has remained poorly defined, because most sport concussion research centred on male athletes in collision sports, or on female football players, Dr Broglio said.
Concussion management recommendations are outlined every four years by the Concussion in Sport Group, an international body that reviews the medical literature and develops guidelines on clinical care. Dr Broglio, also a member of the Group, said this paper and others resulting from the CARE Consortium will likely be taken into consideration when the group meets next year.
