Helmets do nothing to prevent sports concussions, and the quest for better equipment often backfires on players who think they’re protected and can play more dangerously, says a set of updated concussion guidelines led by researchers from the University of Calgary.

Helmets do nothing to prevent sports concussions, and the quest for better equipment often backfires on players who think they’re protected and can play more dangerously, says a set of updated concussion guidelines led by researchers from the University of Calgary.
The more appropriate preventative action is making changes to sporting rules that would minimize the incidence and severity of head trauma, the guidelines say. And when an injury does occur it’s crucial to be able to assess and then manage it effectively.
Those statements, based on the consensus of a 32-member panel of global experts, are just some of the updated recommendations for health-care providers that are expected to shape the management, assessment and prevention of concussions in sports with the goal to improve outcomes.
Helmets are designed to prevent severe brain injury and skull trauma – and they do that very well – but they don’t prevent concussion, said Dr. Willem Meeuwisse, a professor at the University of Calgary and leader of the University of Calgary Brain Injury Initiative with the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute and the Faculties of Kinesiology and Medicine.
“You’re talking about a soft brain moving inside a hard skull,” Meeuwisse said. “The protective equipment that’s worn in most sports does prevent what it’s designed for, which is severe trauma, but it does not stop the brain from shaking inside the skull.”
The updated guidelines were released Monday and are based on the deliberations at the 4th International Conference on Concussion in Sport held in Zurich last November. That panel was co-chaired Meeuwisse. The results will be published in the April issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine and the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine.
The guidelines and recommendations for sports concussion and management come as sports leagues are grappling with how to keep their players safe and high-profile injured players such as the NHL’s Sidney Crosby have thrust concussion concerns into the spotlight.
One of the most important recommendations the panel came to was that extended rest may not be the best recovery approach for all those who suffer from concussions, Meeuwisse said.
About 80 per cent of those who get a sport-related concussion recover in about 10 days. And the treatment for that group is physical and cognitive rest. But for the 20 per cent who are not better after 10 days, more rest isn’t always the best approach, Meeuwisse said.
Those people need to be assessed more thoroughly, he said, and a gradual return to activities may be a more sensible approach.