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Heron, N, Jones, N, Cardwell, C and Gomes, C (2023) 'If in Doubt, Sit Them Out': How Long to Return to Elite Cycling Competition following a Sports-Related Concussion (SRC)? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20 (8). ISSN 1660-4601
If in Doubt, Sit Them Out How Long to Return to Elite Cycling Competition following a Sports-Related Concussion (SRC).pdf - Published Version
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION: A concussion or sports-related concussion (SRC) is a traumatic brain injury induced by biomechanical forces. After a SRC diagnosis is made, a concussed individual must undergo a period away from competition while they return to their baseline level of functioning. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) currently recommend a minimum of 6 days restriction from competitive cycling following a SRC but there is a growing feeling amongst those involved in brain injury research that this period is too short. Therefore, how much time should cyclists be removed from competitive sporting action following a SRC? AIMS: To review the time out of competition following the diagnosis of a SRC for elite cyclists within British Cycling (BC). METHODS: All medical records for elite cyclists within BC were audited for diagnoses of "concussion" or "sports-related concussions" from January 2017 until September 2022. The days out of competition following the concussion until ready to compete again (that is, returned to full training) was then calculated. All diagnoses and management of SRC were undertaken by the medical team at BC and in-keeping with current international guidelines. RESULTS: Between January 2017 and September 2022, there were 88 concussions diagnosed, 54 being males and 8 in para-athletes. The median duration for time out of competition for all concussions was 16 days. There was no statistical difference between males (median 15.5 days) and females (median 17.5 days) for time out of competition (p-value 0.25). The median duration out of competition following a concussion for able-bodied athletes was 16 (80 athletes) compared to 51 days (8 athletes) in para-cyclists, which was not statistically different (p-value 0.39). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to report SRC concussion recovery times in elite cycling, including para-athletes. Between January 2017 and September 2022, there were 88 concussions diagnosed at BC and the median duration for time out of competition for all concussions was 16 days. There was no statistically significant difference in recovery times between male and females and para- and able-bodied athletes. This data should be used to help establish minimum withdrawal times post-SRC for elite cycling participation and we call on the UCI to review this data when establishing SRC protocols for cycling, with further research required in para-cyclists.
Item Type: | Article |
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Additional Information: | © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | concussion; sports-related concussion (SRC); recovery; time; duration; return to sport; return to competition |
Subjects: | R Medicine > R Medicine (General) |
Divisions: | Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Medicine |
Related URLs: | |
Depositing User: | Symplectic |
Date Deposited: | 11 May 2023 13:25 |
Last Modified: | 11 May 2023 13:25 |
URI: | https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/12628 |