Assessment and Treatment of Sport-Related Concussion (Herget - Online)

Course overview

Too often, a patient is seen after sustaining a concussion and given little to no guidance regarding how to effectively and safely return to school and sport without excessive symptom provocation. These patients frequently show symptoms well beyond the typical timeline, as they have missed out on proper rehabilitation opportunities and potentially have developed secondary signs and symptoms related to prolonged removal from school and sport, such as psychosocial dysfunction and deconditioning. Rehabilitative clinicians now are involved with care of these patients from diagnosis to full recovery. This course will briefly address the multi-system involvement, not limited to oculomotor, vestibular, orthopaedic and cardiovascular, in the assessment and rehabilitation of the concussed athlete. The complexity of how each of these systems contributes to impairments and functional limitations will be reviewed. The most up to date research on evidence-based assessment tools will be presented as well as best practice tools for rehabilitation. This course will arm the clinician with tips to minimize symptoms in each domain to allow the student to return to school related activities earlier and minimize days lost from school. Additionally, the clinician will examine the importance of instructing a step-wise progression of exercises from each individual system involved, to functional progressions of exercises, to eventual sport specific and non-contact sport related skills. After completion of this course, the rehabilitative clinician will be an integral part of the medical management team for those who have sustained a concussion/TBI.