New Insights into Athletes with Slow Recovery from Concussion
A new study published in Neurology provided insights into what constitutes slow recovery from concussion in sports and details about recovery times in athletes experiencing slow recovery. Researchers found that 80% of athletes who experienced a concussion were asymptomatic after 14 days and were able to return to play after 24 days. Athletes whose recovery took longer than this were classified as experiencing “slow recovery”; the study found that athletes who have a slow recovery from a concussion may return to play after an additional month more than the typical recovery time.
Researchers conducted a prospective, multi-site study of college athletes (n=1751, 63% male, 37% female) who played contact sports and who had been diagnosed with a concussion by a physician as part of the NCAA-DoD Concussion, Assessment, Research, and Education (CARE) Consortium. Participants were evaluated 6 hours after injury, 1-3 days after injury, once free of symptoms, once cleared to return to play, and at 6 months. For the first 2 weeks, participants reported symptoms daily to medical staff and then reported weekly if they had not yet returned to play. A total of 23% of participants (n=399) were categorized as having slow recovery.
Among the athletes who took longer than 24 days to recover and return to play, 78% were able to return to play within 60 days of injury, and 83% were able to return within 90 days. At 6 months after injury, 11% of athletes had yet to return to play. The average time for returning to play was 35 days after injury in athletes with slow recovery compared with 13 days in the overall group.
“Although an athlete may experience a slow or delayed recovery, there is reason to believe recovery is achievable with additional time and injury management,” said study author Thomas W. McAllister, MD, of the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. “This is an encouraging message that may help to relieve some of the discouragement that athletes can feel when trying to return to their sport. While some athletes took longer than 24 days to return to play, we found that three-quarters of them could return to sports if given just one more month to recover.”
“The results of this study provide helpful information for athletes and medical teams to consider in evaluating expectations and making difficult decisions about medical disqualification and the value of continuing in their sport,” McAllister said.