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UPMC Clinic Focuses On Treatment Of Concussions

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Oct 28, 2009 4:23 pm US/Eastern

UPMC Clinic Focuses On Treatment Of Concussions

Reporting
Mary Robb Jackson

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: The injury causes a change in brain functions that can last from 24 hours to 10 days.
AP

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"Big Ben" has had his bell rung a few times. Contact sports at any age are a bruising business, but when it's your brain that's bruised, it becomes serious business.

Ben Roethlisberger told David Letterman about the head trauma.

"You have mild concussions - where you're just kind of woozy and you have ones where you're blacked out," he said.

Concussions occur when the brain is rocked violently back and forth inside the skull due to a blow to the head or neck.

The injury causes a change in brain functions that can last from 24 hours to 10 days. Most of the time there's a complete recovery.

But repeated concussions can lead to serious, permanent basin damage and that damage can start very early.

"We see concussions in our clinic that occur in kids as early as five, six years old," says Dr. Mark Lovell, director and professor of UPMC's Concussion Program.

In the clinic, Alex Hamilton is explaining what happened to his head during last Wednesday's game.

"From what I remember, I was running down to go after the ball," he said.

After that, the 15-year-old wide receiver for the Hopewell Vikings doesn't remember much when he was hit and his head bounced off the ground.

Dr. Lovell sees about 200 kids in UPMC's Concussion Clinic every week.

A 20-minute UPMC Concussion Impact Test measures brain processing, speed, memory and visual motor skills to develop a base line.

Those results can be used to compare to future head injuries to determine the damage.

"If a concussion is not dealt with properly it can become long term," he said.

The data Dr. Lovell has gathered over the past decade since the impact test was developed has taught them a lot.

"We do not rush kids back to play. We keep them out until all of their scores are normal and we're absolutely convinced that they are ready to return to sport and play safely," he added.

UPMC's Concussion Impact Test is now being used by the NFL, NHL and in 3,000 schools across the country.