When will the cognitive function get back to normal after sports concussion?

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I can completely understand your concern for your daughter's illness. I have seen the attachment. (attachment removed to protect patient identity).

Sports concussion injury is a new concept in medical sciences. Concussion is basically a very mild injury to the brain which impairs the basic mechanism in which a brain functions under normal circumstances. Concussion can be caused by a direct blow to the head or by indirect blow, for example, when an athlete is sprinting very fast and suddenly stops or changes direction leading to the sudden change in movement of the brain tissue leading to a friction between the brain tissue and inner surface of the bones of the skull.

Let us discuss the queries asked by you one by one.

Regarding how can her cognitive function be back to normal when she still feels so bad?

Well, at present her problem is not concussion brain injury because concussion brain injuries usually heals within a few days. Various scientific studies shows that 90-95 % of concussion injuries heals as fast as within eight to nine days after the injury and only 5-10 %,injuries take more than 10 days. So medically and technically it is post concussion syndrome which she is presently dealing with. Post concussion syndrome can develop in a person with a very mild concussion and on the contrary, do not develop in some patients who suffered a major injury which in turn means that development of post concussion syndrome does not depend on the severity of brain injury, it happens in some and do not happen in others. But the good thing is that in sooner or later the person gets cured with time. 90% cases of post concussion syndrome resolves in two to three months and 10% resolves six to eight months after the initial injury and very rarely it may take maximum upto one year but the point is that almost 100% cases get resolved maximally within one year after the injury.

Regarding does she need to continue to rest as she has been for four months?

Yes, as she is still having symptoms of post-concussion syndrome i.e headache, fatigue, dizziness, sleeping disturbances, etc., she needs to continue both physical and mental rest till all the symptoms go away. The medical reason behind recommending both mental and physical reasons is that doing physical activity the heart starts beating fast and more forcefully leading to increased blood flow in the brain which inturn can exacerbate the symptoms of post-concussion syndrome and can cause the symptoms to reoccur. Similarly performing cognitive activity and even mental activities like thinking use energy in the brain and can slow the recovery process of post-concussion syndrome

Regarding does she still have a concussion?

No, she does not have concussion now. As I have already explained that in almost all cases, concussion injury heals within 10 days. Her primary concussion injury has healed and presently she only has the symptoms of post-concussion syndrome. Regarding her special accommodations at school right now.

Yes, she should continue and follow those special accommodations till all her symptoms of post-concussion syndrome subside and go away, otherwise as I explained above, any physical or mental stress can delay the recovery and can re-trigger the symptoms repeatedly.

I hope this helps.