Head Injuries and Soccer

Recent articles about head injuries and soccer

Latest Pubmed search for soccer-related head injuires

Neuropsychological impairment as a consequence of football (soccer) play and football heading: a preliminary analysis and report on school students (13-16 years)
Child Neuropsychol. 2005, 11:513-26
Stephens R, Rutherford A, Potter D, Fernie G.
School of Psychology, Keele University, Staffordshire, United Kingdom. r.stephens@psy.keele.ac.uk
Footballers run the risk of incurring mild head injury from a variety of sources, including the intentional use of the head to play the ball, known as heading. This paper presents a preliminary exploratory analysis of data collected to examine whether cumulative incidence of mild head injury, or cumulative heading frequency, are related to neuropsychological functioning in male adolescent footballers. In a quasi-experimental cross-sectional design, neuropsychological test scores of school team footballers were compared with those of similarly aged rugby players and noncontact sport players. Cumulative mild head injury incidence was estimated using self-reports, and cumulative heading was estimated using a combination of observation and self-reports. No participants had sustained a head injury within 3 months of testing. There was no relationship between head injury and neuropsychological performance, and there were no decrements in either the footballers or the rugby players in comparison with the noncontact sport players. Within the footballers, cumulative heading did not predict any of the neuropsychological test scores. These findings indicate the absence of neuropsychological impairment arising due to cumulative mild head injury incidence, or cumulative heading. Although these null findings may be reassuring to players, parents, and football organizers, we stress that they are preliminary. Further data is being collected from the same populations to provide more reliable effect estimates.

Neuropsychological impairment as a consequence of football (soccer) play and football heading: preliminary analyses and report on university footballers.
J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2005 Apr;27(3):299-319.
Rutherford A, Stephens R, Potter D, Fernie G.
Department of Psychology, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST55BG, UK. a.rutherford@psy.keele.ac.uk
Previous research has claimed neuropsychological impairment occurs as a result of professional and amateur football play, and, specifically, football heading. However, much of this research exhibits substantial methodological problems. By investigating less committed amateur level footballers, the current study sought to gain some insight into the developmental history of any neuropsychological consequences of football play. University football, rugby and noncontact sports players were compared on a range of biographical and neuropsychological test variables. While playing their chosen sports, rugby players sustained many more head injuries than footballers and noncontact sportsmen, but footballers did not sustain significantly more head injuries than noncontact sportsmen. The number of head injuries sustained predicted Trails B and TAP Divided Attention latencies in a positive fashion. After controlling for the number of head injuries sustained, sport group effects were detected with TAP Divided Attention accuracy scores, with footballers exhibiting poorest performance. After controlling for the number of head injuries sustained, the total amount of heading done by footballers predicted the number of Wisconsin Card Sorting category shifts in a negative fashion. Nevertheless, over interpretation of all of these results should be resisted because of the exploratory nature of the analyses and the possibility that the sport groups may differ in ways other than just the nature of their sports activities.

Summary and agreement statement of the 2nd International Conference on Concussion in Sport, Prague 2004
Br J Sports Med 2005;39:196-204
McCrory P, Johnston K, Meeuwisse W, Aubry M, Cantu R, Dvorak J, Graf-Baumann T, Kelly J, Lovell M, Schamasch P.
In November 2001, the 1st International Symposium on Concussion in Sport was held in Vienna, Austria to provide recommendations for the improvement of safety and health of athletes who suffer concussive injuries in ice hockey, football (soccer), and other sports. The 2nd International Symposium on Concussion in Sport was organised by the same group and held in Prague, Czech Republic in November 2004. It resulted in a revision and update of the Vienna consensus recommendations, which are presented here (pdf file=936KB).

Protective soccer headgear to debut in crowning event
Thu Sep 4, 2003 11:32 AM ET
Hammering the ball with your bare head. It's obligatory in soccer. But not in the upcoming women's World Cup, where several players are expected to put protective headgear under a marketing spotlight that could spur its use among the masses.
And San Diego-based Full90 Sports claims to have already cornered the market as the world's only soccer headgear maker. The foam-filled headbands, which are about 11Ú2 inches wide, weigh 1.4 ounces and cost $25-$30, are meant to do something about the sport's serious head injuries.
Those often result when players focus on heading a ball but end up having their heads collide in the process. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Research finds that players banging their heads on each other, or surfaces such as goal posts or the ground, cause about five times more concussions than from heading the ball.
Jeff Skein, who had worked in sports helmet marketing for years and suffered several concussions in sports, started the company last year after seeing concussions in his daughter's soccer games. In the past year, sports organizations have said they wouldn't ban the headgear but wouldn't endorse it, either. Says U.S. Soccer spokesman Jim Moorhouse: "We're not prepared to unilaterally sign off on headgear because we don't know what the ultimate effects will be."
FIFA, soccer's international governing body, recently ruled that such gear will be permitted. Urs Linsi, FIFA's general secretary, informed all national soccer associations that protective headgear, as well as "facemasks, knee and arm protectors" will be allowed because they are "not considered dangerous." FIFA's move follows announcements from various sports bodies, including U.S. Soccer, the NCAA (news - web sites) and the National Federation of High Schools, that they will not ban the headgear from games.
Skein is glad to just get in the game. "The biggest obstacle we faced," he says, "was that soccer officials worried players wearing headgear might create the perception, among parents, that soccer is dangerous."
And we wouldn't want that, since the sport that inspires so many riots overseas is cherished as a relatively benign pastime by many Americans.
But then, stereotypes can evolve. Anson Dorrance, who coached the U.S. women's team and heads the University of North Carolina women's program, remembers playing soccer "when it wasn't macho to wear shin guards. Looking back, all of us consider that senseless, just foolish."
Now Dorrance, who endorses Full90's head guards and will use them in practices, suggests, "it's a lot harder for women to head comfortably" than it is for men, who generally have stronger neck muscles. Headgear, he says, "might, at least in the women's game, be like shin guards: Standard equipment."
About 12 players wore protective headgear in the WUSA this season. Skein says Full90 will pay Joy Fawcett, a U.S. team player, about "the cost of a dinner" for each game she wears the headgear in the World Cup.
"I wasn't sure I wanted to wear it at first," she says. "But I've seen players get concussions time and time again. I've never a big fan of heading. It always hurts.
"It really does help on head-to-head contact. And when you get punched in the head by the goalkeeper."
What's on?
Steve Schettler oversees spininc.com, which now posts TV listings for about 66,000 sports events and shows. Like the Texas A&M-Michigan State football game on Sept. 10, 2011, that he figures will kick off at 3:30 ET since ABC "would pick that up." But on a site meant to carry listings for every televised sports event in North America from Mexican soccer to Canadian curling, broadcast networks to the tiniest local stations times get checked and rechecked. Says Schettler: "You'd be surprised how much conflicting information you get. I don't know how else to put it. You just have to be anal about it."
Schettler began compiling listings when he worked at NBC in 1987. Then he turned it into a business, first supplying broadcasters keeping tabs on their competition, then sports bars, then college coaches trying to save money on scouting games by finding them on TV. Then Schettler, now with about 5,000 subscribers paying $365 annually, stumbled on consumer interest from gamblers ("when they bet a lot of money, they want to see the game") as well as interest from affluent individuals ("I think Lawrence Taylor was one of my first customers.")
Demand might build as more viewers get satellite and digital TV and face a labyrinth of sports choices, including new channels devoted to single sports. But the site seems ready to sweat the details: It already provides satellite coordinates to coverage that doesn't even get on live TV, such as sports leagues' internal feeds that are used to supply highlights to sports shows.
And as sports that don't make it to TV start showing up on low-cost live online Web casts, there could be an online tsunami making today's TV sports menu seem sparse. "The Internet is going to be our next big hit," Schettler says. "Then, everything will be on."
And, presumably, listed. Schettler produced the site with four staffers and plenty of part-time Ohio State students in a Columbus-based company formally called Earth Alien Inc. ("I think we're all aliens on this earth," says Schettler, possibly joking.) And he doesn't regret going into an unusual line of work: "Corporate America wasn't my cup of tea. The harder you work, the fewer pats on the back you get."

Researchers Split on Soccer Risks May 7, 2000
By IRA DREYFUSS, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Researchers are split on whether repeatedly bouncing a soccer ball off a young player's head can dent the child's thinking ability.
Some studies have found that players who suffer repeated blows to the head can have impaired cognition years later. But players can suffer head injury by running into other players or a goal post, or striking their head on the ground in a fall. Experts at a Washington conference generally agreed it's too soon to blame heading the ball.
One researcher, however, said his work on crash test dummies indicates the impact of a ball is powerful enough to warrant head protection.
The conference was called by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. "One of the interests for us is whether subtle effects are present as a result of head contact with the ball," said Ron Medford, assistant executive director for hazard identification and reduction. CPSC was looking for information, not trying to make soccer rules, he said.
The CPSC study was a response to research such as a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1999 which reported that amateur soccer players scored lower than amateur athletes in other sports on tests of memory and planning. The researchers suspected that repeated blows to the head may be the reason. Other studies, in Europe, found similar problems in elite players.
An unpublished study presented at the CPSC conference tried to find the effect of the impact when a ball is headed. Researcher Mariusz Ziejewski of North Dakota State University tested the impact of soccer balls of crash test dummy heads, and used computer modeling to estimate what those results could mean in terms of brain injury. The balls struck the heads with 150-200 pounds of force, which Ziejewski considered to be less than those which can occur in a game.
In a properly headed ball, the forehead takes the impact, and bent knees absorb much of the force. But in an improperly headed ball, by an inexperienced player who may be caught by surprise, movement of the head creates rotational force on the brain, Ziejewski said.
Some of the impacts would be sufficient to create shearing stresses that could stretch and deform brain tissue, if the ball is not headed properly, Ziejewski concluded. "If you execute the header properly ... the effect on your brain most likely is very minimal," he said. "If you get hit in the head and you don't expect it, it could be a different story."
Use of padded headgear could reduce the effect of low impacts to minimal levels, Ziejewski said, based on his study, which was funded through a research grant to the university from SoccerDocs, a St. Paul, Minn., company that makes the headgear.
However, knowing what happens in a crash test dummy is not the same as knowing what happens in a player's brain. And other participants at the conference questioned Ziejewski's definition of a potential injury level. Researchers can't tell the amount of impact necessary to cause mild deficits, said Trey Crisco, an associate professor of orthopedics and engineering at Brown University. Crisco and other experts also questioned whether there is a need for players to wear head protection.
There are few reported cases of concussion, which itself is not always easy to identify, and the problem of milder injuries, which was a major focus of the CPSC conference, would be even harder to pick up, Crisco said.
However, a 1998 National Institutes of Health consensus statement on traumatic brain injury estimated "90 percent of sports-related TBIs are mild and may go unreported." Risk factors for such injuries are rarely studied, the report said.
Head protection conceivably could make matters worse by giving players a false sense of security, which could encourage them to take more risks, said Bill Mason, senior member of the referee committee at the American Youth Soccer Organization. If young players are hurt from heading the ball, it's probably a rare event, he said. However, he considered the issue worth watching, especially when the header comes off a ball kicked high and downfield.
The youth soccer group said that coaches should not insist that players head the ball if they don't want to, but it said teaching the skill is imperative for those who do want to.

A distinction must be made between injuries suffered as the result of repetitive heading and injury by violent contact with an opponent,the ground, or by involuntary impact of a ball. As previous posts mention there are many flaws in the studies that purport to show a danger in repetitive heading.
For the USSF Position Statement on Heading and Head Injuries go to:
http://www.us-soccer.com/scripts/runisa.dll?m2.65816:gp:45291:15028+PUB/SPORTSMED/HEADINJ or see the Sports Medicine section on the USSF Webpage: www.us-soccer.com
I get this question almost weekly from parents concerned about the danger of heading for young players. One of my best resources is BeneMarc Insurance(they insure the majority of state youth soccer associations) They conclude that the risk of injury is so low that they do not feel the use of helmets or protective headgear is needed. Similiarly they do not see a need for mouthguards. (and they are the ones that would pay the claims on such injuries!)
95% of the material I receive favoring the adoption of helmets, padded bandannas, or other protective devices come from people with a financial interest in the product or are unfamiliar with youth soccer. The majority of players under the age of eight do not head a ball when playing the game because of the difficulty young players have in crossing a ball. They numbers of headers that occur in a game increases with the age of the player.
If you have any question please call me.
Tom Hart Director of Recreational Coaching Education US Youth Soccer 1(800)476-2237 thart@youthsoccer.org

TITLE: Neuropsychological Impairment in Amateur Soccer Players
AUTHORS: Erik J. T. Matser, MSc, Alphons G. Kessels, MD, Muriel D. Lezak, PhD, Barry D. Jordan, MD, Jaap Troost, MD
AUTHOR AFFILIATION:
SOURCE: JAMA. 1999;282:971-973
ABSTRACT:
Context  Soccer players incur concussions during matches and training sessions, as well as numerous subconcussive blows to the head from impacts with the soccer ball (headers). The combination of soccer-related concussions and the number of headers may be a risk for chronic traumatic brain injury (CTBI).
Objective  To determine whether amateur soccer players have evidence of CTBI.
Design, Setting, and Participants  Cross-sectional study of 33 amateur soccer players and 27 amateur athletes involved in swimming and track (controls) in the Netherlands who underwent interviews and neuropsychological testing.
Main Outcome Measures  Performance of soccer players vs controls on 16 neuropsychological tests having 27 outcomes.
Results  Compared with control athletes, amateur soccer players exhibited impaired performance on tests of planning (39% vs 13%; P=.001) and memory (27% vs 7%; P=.004). Among soccer players, 9 (27%) had incurred 1 soccer-related concussion and 7 (23%) had had 2 to 5 concussions during their career. The number of concussions incurred in soccer was inversely related to the neuropsychological performance on 6 of the neuropsychological tests.
Conclusions  Our results indicate that participation in amateur soccer in general and concussion specifically is associated with impaired performance in memory and planning functions. Due to the worldwide popularity of soccer, these observations may have important public health implications.

TITLE: Traumatic Brain Injury in High School Athletes
AUTHORS: John W. Powell, PhD, ATC, Kim D. Barber-Foss, MS, ATC
AUTHOR AFFILIATION:
SOURCE: JAMA. 1999;282:958-963
ABSTRACT:
Context  The potential seriousness of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) is increasingly recognized; however, information on the frequency of MTBI among high school athletes is limited.
Objective  To identify the type, frequency, and severity of MTBI in selected high school sports activities.
Design  Observational cohort study.
Setting and Participants  Two hundred forty-six certified athletic trainers recorded injury and exposure data for high school varsity athletes participating in boys' football, wrestling, baseball and field hockey, girls' volleyball and softball, boys' and girls' basketball, and boys' and girls' soccer at 235 US high schools during 1 or more of the 1995-1997 academic years.
Main Outcome Measures  Rates of reported MTBI, defined as a head-injured player who was removed from participation and evaluated by an athletic trainer or physician prior to returning to participation. National incidence figures for MTBI also were estimated.
Results  Of 23,566 reported injuries in the 10 sports during the 3-year study period, 1219 (5.5%) were MTBIs. Of the MTBIs, football accounted for 773 (63.4%) of cases; wrestling, 128 (10.5%); girls' soccer, 76 (6.2%); boys' soccer, 69 (5.7%); girls' basketball, 63 (5.2%); boys' basketball, 51 (4.2%); softball, 25 (2.1%); baseball, 15 (1.2%); field hockey, 13 (1.1%); and volleyball, 6 (0.5%). The injury rates per 100 player-seasons were 3.66 for football, 1.58 for wrestling, 1.14 for girls' soccer, 1.04 for girls' basketball, 0.92 for boys' soccer, 0.75 for boys' basketball, 0.46 for softball, 0.46 for field hockey, 0.23 for baseball, and 0.14 for volleyball. The median time lost from participation for all MTBIs was 3 days. There were 6 cases of subdural hematoma and intracranial injury reported in football. Based on these data, an estimated 62,816 cases of MTBI occur annually among high school varsity athletes participating in these sports, with football accounting for about 63% of cases.
Conclusions  Rates of MTBI vary among sports and none of the 10 popular high school sports we studied is without the occurrence of an MTBI. Continued involvement of high school sports sponsors, researchers, medical professionals, coaches, and sports participants is essential to help minimize the risk of MTBI.

TITLE: Trends in Hospitalization Associated With Traumatic Brain Injury
AUTHORS: David Thurman, MD, MPH, Janet Guerrero, MS
AUTHOR AFFILIATION:
SOURCE: J AMA. 1999;282:954-957
ABSTRACT:
Context  Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with more than 50,000 deaths in the United States each year, and recent observations suggest a substantial decline in TBI-related hospitalizations and deaths.
Objective  To analyze long-term trends in TBI-related hospitalization in the United States.
Design, Setting, and Participants  Analysis of existing data from 1980 through 1995 from the National Hospital Discharge Survey, an annual survey representing the US general population. The number of participating hospitals ranged from 400 to 494.
Main Outcome Measures  Annual rates of TBI-related hospitalization, stratified by age, sex, severity of injury, and outcome.
Results  The annual number of TBI cases identified from the sample during the study period ranged from 1611 to 3129. Overall rates of hospitalization for TBI declined an estimated 51%, from 199 to 98 per 100,000 per year. When analyzed by severity of injury, mild TBIs declined most during this period, from 130 to 51 hospitalizations per 100,000 per year (61% decline; P<.001 compared with intermediate and severe TBI). The decline was greatest among those aged 5-14 years (-66%) and least among those aged 65 years or older (-9%). The ratio of male to female rates showed little variation during the study period (ratio, 1.8; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.6-2.0), as did the in-hospital mortality rate (mean, 5.3 per 100,000; 95% CI, 3.6-7.1).
Conclusions  Changes in hospital practices may be a major factor in the declining rates of TBI-related hospital admissions. These practices increasingly appear to exclude persons with less severe TBI from hospital admission and shift their care to outpatient settings.

TITLE: Concussion history in elite male and female soccer players.
AUTHORS: Barnes BC; Cooper L; Kirkendall DT; McDermott TP; Jordan BD; Garrett WE Jr
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA.
SOURCE: Am J Sports Med 1998 May-Jun;26(3):433-8
ABSTRACT: A unique feature of soccer is the purposeful use of the head for controlling, passing, and shooting a soccer ball. Some concern has been expressed in the literature on the cumulative effects of heading on soccer players. Certain neurophysiologic and neuropsychologic changes have been reported in current or retired players, with heading being blamed. A major factor that could influence some of the findings is a player's history of concussive episodes, which are known to influence brain function. These episodes can occur during aspects of the game other than heading. We interviewed all male and female soccer players (N = 137, average age = 20.5 years) who competed at the U.S. Olympic Sports Festival in 1993. The mechanisms of injuries, frequency, and sequelae were determined. There were 74 concussions in 39 male players (grade I = 50) and 28 concussions in 23 female players (grade I = 19). For the men, 48 of the 74 episodes were from collisions with another player. For the women, 20 of 28 were from such collisions. Headaches, being "dazed," and dizziness were the most common symptoms reported. Based on concussion history, the odds are 50% that a man, and 22% that a woman, will sustain a concussion within a 10-year period. The data indicate that concussions from player-to-player contact are a frequent hazard in soccer. Head injuries incurred this way may be more of an influence for published findings of physiologic and psychologic deficiencies than routine heading of the soccer ball.
TITLE: Is heading a soccer ball injurious to brain function?
AUTHORS: Baroff GS
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Developmental Disabilities Training Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3370, USA.
SOURCE: J Head Trauma Rehabil 1998 Apr;13(2):45-52
ABSTRACT: With the growing popularity of soccer both in the United States and worldwide, reports of adverse effects of 'heading' on brain function are a source of concern. This article reviews the related research literature on neurologic and neuropsychological findings. Neurologic and neuropsychological abnormalities have been reported in a significant minority of older former professional players in Norway. Purportedly unrelated to age, the most prominent findings were cerebral atrophy and impairment on intelligence test abilities that are particularly vulnerable to brain damage. Also noteworthy in these retired players were persistent physical, cognitive, and emotional complaints consistent with a postconcussive syndrome. Younger amateur players appear to be free of major abnormalities, although some report persistent difficulties with memory and concentration. The severity of these complaints may be related to a history of soccer-related head injuries and not necessarily specific to heading. Research findings specific to heading are not more than suggestive at best, and clarification of the risks of heading a soccer ball awaits more definitive studies.
TITLE: Concussion incidence in elite college soccer players.
AUTHORS: Boden BP; Kirkendall DT; Garrett WE Jr
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
SOURCE: Am J Sports Med 1998 Mar-Apr;26(2):238-41
ABSTRACT: A unique aspect of soccer is the use of the head for directing the ball. The potential for resultant head injuries has been the focus of discussions worldwide. Prior work has attributed neuropsychologic deficits to the cumulative effects of heading, without evaluating concussion rates in soccer players. We prospectively studied the seven men's and eight women's varsity soccer teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference during two seasons to document concussion incidence. The 29 concussions diagnosed over the 2 years in 26 athletes, 17 (59%) concussions in men and 12 (41%) in women, resulted from contact with an opponent's head (8, 28%), elbow (4, 14%), knee (1, 3%), or foot (1, 3%); the ball (7, 24%); the ground (3, 10%); concrete sidelines (1, 3%); goalpost (1, 3%); or a combination of objects (3, 10%). Twenty concussions (69%) occurred in games; none resulted from intentional heading of the ball. The basic incidence was 0.96 concussions per team per season. The overall incidence was 0.6 per 1000 athlete-exposures for men, and 0.4 per 1000 athlete-exposures for women. By concussion grade, there were 21 (72%) grade 1, 8 (28%) grade 2, and no grade 3 concussions. These findings suggest that concussions are more common in soccer than anticipated and that acute head injuries may have potential for long-term neuropsychologic changes. TITLE: Acute and chronic brain injury in United States National Team soccer players [see comments] [published erratum appears in Am J Sports Med 1996 Jul-Aug;24(4):563] AUTHORS: Jordan SE; Green GA; Galanty HL; Mandelbaum BR; Jabour BA AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Department of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles 90095, USA. SOURCE: Am J Sports Med 1996 Mar-Apr;24(2):205-10 CITATION IDS: PMID: 8775122 UI: 96371287 COMMENT: Comment in: Am J Sports Med 1996 Sep-Oct;24(5):704-5 ABSTRACT: We designed a study to determine whether chronic encephalopathy occurs in elite, active soccer players resulting from repetitive heading of the soccer ball. Studies have suggested that the cumulative effects of heading a ball can cause a chronic brain syndrome similar to dementia pugilistica, which is seen in professional boxers. Twenty of 25 members of the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team training camp (average age, 24.9; average years of soccer, 17.7), who completed a questionnaire on head injury symptoms and had magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, were compared with 20 age-matched male elite track athletes. The soccer players were surveyed about playing position, teams, number of headers, acute head injuries, and years of playing experience. An exposure index to headers was developed to assess a dose-response effect of chronic heading. The soccer and track groups were questioned regarding alcohol use and history of acute head traumas. Questionnaire analysis and magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated no statistical differences between the two groups. Among the soccer players, symptoms and magnetic resonance imaging findings did not correlate with age, years of play, exposure index results, or number of headers. However, reported head injury symptoms, especially in soccer players, correlated with histories of prior acute head injuries (r = 0.63). These findings suggest that any evidence of encephalopathy in soccer players relates more to acute head injuries received playing soccer than from repetitive heading.
TITLE: Head and neck injuries in soccer. Impact of minor trauma.
AUTHORS: Tysvaer AT
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Department of Surgery, Central Hospital, Rogaland, Stavanger, Norway.
SOURCE: Sports Med 1992 Sep;14(3):200-13
ABSTRACT: Head injuries have been shown to account for between 4 and 22% of soccer injuries. Clinical and neuropsychological investigations of patients with minor head trauma have revealed organic brain damage. 69 active football (soccer) players and 37 former players of the Norwegian national team were included in a neurological and electroencephalographic (EEG) study to investigate the incidence of head injuries mainly caused by heading the ball. 3% of the active and 30% of the former players complained of permanent problems such as headache, dizziness, irritability, impaired memory and neck pain. 35% of the active and 32% of former players had from slightly abnormal to abnormal EEG compared with 13 and 11% of matched controls, respectively. There were fewer definitely abnormal EEG changes among typical 'headers' (10%) than among 'nonheaders' (27%). The former players were also subjected to cerebral computed tomography (CT), a neuropsychological examination and a radiological examination of the cervical spine. One-third of the players were found to have central cerebral atrophy and 81% to have from mild to severe (mostly mild to moderate) neuropsychological impairment. The radiological examination of the cervical spine revealed a significantly higher incidence and degree of degenerative changes than in a matched control group.
TITLE: Soccer injuries to the brain. A neurologic and electroencephalographic study of former players.
AUTHORS: Tysvaer AT; Storli OV; Bachen NI
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Department of Neurosurgery, National Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
SOURCE: Acta Neurol Scand 1989 Aug;80(2):151-6
ABSTRACT: Thirty-seven former football players of the Norwegian national team underwent a neurological and electroencephalographic (EEG) examination to investigate the incidence of head injuries due to heading the ball. Sixteen players complained of protracted and permanent symptoms commonly attributed to the post-concussional syndrome: headache, irritability, dizziness, lack of concentration and impaired memory. A significantly increased incidence of EEG abnormalities was found in players compared with matched controls. The high incidence of EEG changes is probably the result of a cumulative effect due to repeated head traumas.
TITLE: Soccer injuries to the brain. A neurologic and electroencephalographic study of active football players.
AUTHORS: Tysvaer AT; Storli OV
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Department of Neurosurgery and Neurology, National Hospital, University Clinic, Oslo, Norway.
SOURCE: Am J Sports Med 1989 Jul-Aug;17(4):573-8
ABSTRACT: Sixty-nine football players from six Norwegian First Division League Clubs underwent a neurologic and EEG examination to investigate the incidence of head injuries. A significantly increased incidence of EEG disturbances were found in the football players compared to matched controls. The disturbances were most pronounced among the youngest players. The higher incidence of EEG disturbances found in the football players is most likely due to neuronal damage caused by repeated minor head traumas.
TITLE: Brain damage in former association football players. An evaluation by cerebral computed tomography.
AUTHORS: Sortland O; Tysvaer AT
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Department of Radiology, National Hospital, University Clinic, Oslo, Norway.
SOURCE: Neuroradiology 1989;31(1):44-8
ABSTRACT: Thirty-three former football players from the National Football Team of Norway were examined by cerebral computer tomography (CT). The CT studies, evaluated for brain atrophy, visually and by linear measurements compared two different normal materials. One third of the players were found to have central cerebral atrophy. It is concluded that the atrophy probably was caused by repeated small head injuries during the football play, mainly in connection with heading the ball.