Biomedical subjects

Frank M Webbe

Publications and source records attributed to Frank M Webbe.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2003

Short-term and long-term outcome of athletic closed head injuries.

The continued development of the sport environment as a laboratory for clinical investigation of mild head injury has greatly advanced the use of neuropsychological assessment in evaluating brain-injured athletes, and tracking their symptoms and recovery in an objective manner. The use of neurocognitive baseline measures has become critical in determining whether a brain-injured athlete has recovered function sufficiently to return to play. The rapid growth of computerized and web-based neurocognitive assessment measures provides an efficient, valid technology to put such testing within the reach of most institutions and organizations that field sport teams. Moreover, the knowledge of the recovery curve following mild head injury in the sport environment can be generalized to the management of MTBI in general clinical environments where baseline measures are unlikely. What we know today is that sideline assessments of severity are not predictive of which athletes will show the most typical 5- to 10-day recovery period and which will report persistent PCS complaints and exhibit impaired neurocognitive performance for an extended time. The research on mechanisms of brain injury in MTBI suggests that unpredictable, diffuse white-matter damage may control much of the variability in functional impairments and recovery duration.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Recency and frequency of soccer heading interact to decrease neurocognitive performance.

This study investigated the role of heading recency interacting with heading frequency in determining neuropsychological deficits associated with heading the ball during soccer play. Sixty-four high-ability male soccer players ages 16 to 34 completed the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT), the Trailmaking Test, the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT), the Facial Recognition Test, the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure, and the Shipley Scales. Heading recency interacted with heading frequency, such that players with the highest self-reported estimates of heading who also experienced heading within the previous 7 days scored significantly lower on CVLT, Shipley, Trailmaking, and PASAT than other combinations of heading and recency. Although strict ball-to-head contacts could not be isolated as sufficient to cause this interaction, these results increase the weight of evidence that heading behavior is problematic for causing at least transient cognitive impairment.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Symptom-based assessment of the severity of a concussion.

OBJECT: Current grading systems of concussion and return-to-play guidelines have little empirical support. The authors therefore examined the relationships of the characteristics and symptoms of concussion and the history of concussion to three indicators of concussion severity-number of immediate symptoms, number of symptoms at the initial follow-up examination, and duration of symptoms--to establish an empirical basis for grading concussions. METHODS: Forty-seven athletes who sustained concussions were administered alternate forms of an Internet-based neurocognitive test until their performances were within normal limits relative to baseline levels. Assessments of observer-reported and self-reported symptoms at the sideline of the playing field on the day of injury, and at follow-up examinations were also obtained as part of a comprehensive concussion management protocol. Although loss of consciousness (LOC) was a useful indicator of the initial severity of the injury, it did not correlate with other indices of concussion severity, including duration of symptoms. Athletes reporting memory problems at follow-up examinations had significantly more symptoms in general, longer durations of those symptoms, and significant decreases in scores on neurocognitive tests administered approximately 48 hours postinjury. This decline of scores on neurocognitive testing was significantly associated with an increased duration of symptoms. A history of concussion was unrelated to the number and duration of symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: This paper represents the first documentation of empirically derived indicators of the clinical course of postconcussion symptom resolution. Self-reported memory problems apparent 24 hours postconcussion were robust indicators of the severity of sports-related concussion and should be a primary consideration in determining an athlete's readiness to return to competition. A decline on neurocognitive testing was the only objective measure significantly related to the duration of symptoms. Neither a brief LOC nor a history of concussion was a useful predictor of the duration of postconcussion symptoms.

Adolescent↗