News Release – The Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine
The Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine UK (FSEM) welcomes the launch of Scottish Sport Concussion Guidelines for the general public and for grassroots sports participants, where specialists in Sports and Exercise Medicine are not available to manage concussed players. The FSEM would like to see similar guidelines produced, not just for sport, but to improve recognition, assessment and management of all concussions in the UK.
Dr Roderick Jaques, President of the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine UK comments:
“Concussion is recognised to be one of the most challenging of injuries to diagnose, assess and manage. Best practice clinical pathways from injury to return to play, work or school for a concussed person, outside of the elite sports setting, are not always easily accessible in the UK.
“The Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine fully supports the new Scottish guidelines for the recognition, assessment and management of concussion. We would like to see great initiatives like this developed to deliver UK wide concussion guidelines applicable to anyone handling a suspected concussion.”
Sport Scotland, the Scottish National Sporting Bodies, Medical Royal Colleges and the Scottish CMO have produced the guidelines that are intended to provide information on how to recognise sports concussion and on how sports concussion should be managed from the time of injury through to a safe return to play.
The guidelines stress that, at all levels and in all sports, if an athlete is suspected of having a concussion, they must be immediately removed from play.
Any player with a second concussion within 12 months, a history of multiple concussions, player with unusual symptoms or prolonged recovery should be assessed and managed by health care providers (multidisciplinary) with experience in sports-related concussions.
The overriding message is that ALL concussions are serious and if in doubt, sit them out!
The FSEM recognised the need for a national best practice consensus on concussion last year and has been working with a group including UK National Sporting Bodies and Medical Royal Colleges. The group would like to see consistent best practice, recognition, management guidelines and care pathways adopted from ground level up, across all sectors in the UK and by all health and allied professional groups, where concussion is encountered.