Volume 197 - Issue 3
The need to tackle concussion in Australian football codes
Author: Ron Muratore
Med J Aust 2012; 197 (3): 146-146. || doi: 10.5694/mja12.10861
Published online: 6 August 2012
Published online: 6 August 2012
To the Editor: I read with interest the recent article on concussion in Australian football by Gilbert and Partridge, and although it is well written, and I agree with virtually all that was said, there is a significant glaring error. In discussing the guidelines on return to play after concussion, they give the impression that the National Rugby League (NRL) is somehow lagging behind the ...
To the Editor: I read with interest the recent article on concussion in Australian football by Gilbert and Partridge,1 and although it is well written, and I agree with virtually all that was said, there is a significant glaring error. In discussing the guidelines on return to play after concussion, they give the impression that the National Rugby League (NRL) is somehow lagging behind the rest of the world.
The NRL takes the treatment of concussion extremely seriously, and the guidelines on return to play are and have been based on the best available scientific evidence. The current guidelines on return to play are based on the consensus statement produced at the Third International Conference on Concussion in Sport held in Zürich in 2008.2 The NRL guidelines were upgraded in April 2011 and made even more precautionary than the consensus statement.3
Since that time, the guidelines have stated that any player diagnosed as having a concussion is not allowed to return to the field of play on the same day. Further, affected players are not allowed to return to training until they are asymptomatic and their results have returned to baseline on CogState testing.4
Competing interests
No relevant disclosures.
References
- Gilbert F, Partridge BJ. The need to tackle concussion in Australian football codes. Med J Aust 2012; 196: 561-563. 0_CHDGCBHE
- McCrory P, Meeuwisse W, Johnston K, et al. Consensus statement on concussion in sport: the 3rd international conference on concussion in sport held in Zurich, November 2008. Br J Sports Med 2009; 43 Suppl 1: i76-i90. 0_CBBHDDIA
- NRL Operations Manual 2012. http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/documents/concussion2012/NRL_Operations_Manual_2012.pdf (accessed Jul 2012).
- Collie A, Maruff P, Makdissi M, et al. CogSport: reliability and correlation with conventional cognitive tests used in postconcussion medical evaluations. Clin J Sport Med 2003;13: 28-32. 0_i1142868