Chris' Corner: Tricks of the trade from your friendly neighboorhod Certified Athletic Trainer

First things first on this weeks' edition of Chris' Corner.....A much deserved CONGRATULATIONS to the team for their exceptional play against Tampa! If watching that match didn't wind your clock I'm not sure what would.

Now on to education. This week I will discuss concussions, the proper medical term for which is Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI). It is important to know the medical jargon not just for the sake of geek knowledge but because it more clearly describes what has occurred. There is no such thing as getting ones' "bell rung" or being "out of it". A concussion represents an injury to the brain itself resulting in an impairment of brain function. The most common mechanism of injury is a direct blow to the head, think a football collision or hitting your head on the ground. If enough force is involved the brain strikes the skull on either the same or opposite side of impact. Signs and symptoms of such an injury include but are not limited to: confusion, headache, ringing in the ears, nausea, lack of coordination, blurred vision and unconsciousness. One of the biggest concerns with a MTBI is intracranial bleeding. This can be subdural or epidural. A subdural bleed involves venous bleeding. Venous bleeding is relatively slow. This is the tricky part. Because the bleeding is slow signs and symptoms may take days or even weeks to show themselves. An epidural bleed comes from arterial bleeding which is much faster. Signs and symptoms show themselves rapidly as pressure on the brain increases from the accumulating blood. This is an emergency situation. I'm not saying this to scare you, in most cases a MTBI results in transient neurological dysfunction which resolves itself with time and rest. I merely want to illustrate the seriousness of a MTBI. A second major concern relates to returning to play. If an athlete returns to play before all signs and symptoms have completely resolved and they have gone through an activity progression to ensure signs and symptoms don't return there is a risk of what's called Second Impact Syndrome (SIS). SIS can occur when an athlete who returns too quickly incurs a second MTBI before the previous one has healed. The second MTBI causes rapid swelling of the brain which disrupts essential brain functions. SIS carries a 50% mortality rate! Once again, I'm not trying to scare you, but you can never take a MTBI lightly. Any medical professional worth their salt will tell you, "When in doubt, sit them out!". I can tape your ankle but I can't tape your brain. No athlete's life is worth playing in the big game.

Back to the court. The injury list is at zero which is great. Not that I have nothing to do mind you. There are still plenty of athletes that require a little TLC to make sure they can go out and do what they did on Saturday. It's a good feeling not having anyone miss practice time or matches though. On a personal note, my wonderful parents will be rolling into town tomorrow to watch the Florida Southern match on Tuesday. My mother is particularly pleased that I work with an indoor sport right now. Hopefully they will have a chance to meet some of the staff and players so they can see what I'm always bragging about.

Thanks for tuning in. See you next week on Chris' Corner.