00:00This is the Injury Report, presented by NYU Langone Health.
00:05Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson is in concussion protocol after taking a helmet-to-helmet hit against the Raiders,
00:11leaving his availability against the Chiefs in question.
00:14So what goes into evaluating concussion, and what must happen before a player can return?
00:20Here to walk us through it all, this week on Injury Report, is Dr. Matthew Apicella,
00:24who is dual-trained in emergency and sports medicine.
00:27You see him right there, and he joins us now.
00:29How are you doing, Dr. Apicella?
00:31I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on.
00:33Oh, glad to have you on. Let's talk about it.
00:35Let's talk about concussions here, and we'll start with what's happening inside the helmet.
00:39What exactly happens to the brain during a concussion,
00:42and does a player have to lose consciousness in order to have one?
00:47Yeah, so it's a great question, and, you know, they definitely don't have to lose consciousness.
00:53Less than 10% of concussions have some level of loss of consciousness when they occur.
00:58So really what happens is that the player or the athlete takes a hit to the head or neck area,
01:04and you get this rapid acceleration of the brain, and it either can hit kind of the inside of your
01:09skull
01:09or just kind of move really quickly, and this disrupts or stretches the neurons
01:14and leads to this kind of chemical and electrical imbalance within the brain that then has cascade effects
01:20that cause this kind of energy crisis or energy imbalance within the brain,
01:23and then you start to have all the symptoms that kind of go along with the concussion after this.
01:28So that's kind of what we think is going on when this happens.
01:32There's been a tough-it-out mentality that's always existed around the sport of football.
01:37What are the risks of returning before concussion has resolved,
01:41and what should be the message to athletes who might hesitate to report symptoms
01:44because they don't want to miss a game?
01:47What are the risks, and what do you think athletes should know about why it's important to report those symptoms?
01:53For sure, and I always explain to athletes that this is one of those injuries that you can't just muscle
01:58through.
01:58You can't really tough it out, one, because if you're not ready to return to play
02:03and you're not reacting appropriately, you may put yourself at risk for a different type of injury
02:08or a worse type of injury, and then specifically in the concussion part of it,
02:12you can prolong your symptoms and make recovery down the line even worse.
02:17So, you know, again, I always tell them to kind of be honest about their symptoms
02:21and really report when they're feeling better or if they start to notice anything.
