Protocol for triage of football head injuries

Protocol for triage of football head injuries sJ Geffen, LB Geffen, AD Hinton-Bayre, P Friis & GM Geffen (Poster) The University of Queensland, Brisbane Objective: A practical protocol for on-site management of head trauma in footballers.

Method: Construction of a binary decision algorithm.

Results: The procedure governing decisions on whether to return to play, or to withdraw and monitor or to hospitalize is based on best practice recommendations (Geffen et al., 1998, Head Injuries in Sport. In the Oxford Handbook of Sports Medicine, E. Sherry & S. Wilson [Eds.]. NY: Oxford University Press).

Conclussions and significance: A standardized triage of head injury should be adopted by all football codes.

I Head Trauma I

YES NO

Conscious?

N ~ I DR ABC & Primary Survey resuscitation? other major injuries? convulsions?

YES

unconscious > 3 rains?

I YES

I Neur°l°gicalScreening ~ - 9 - - -Examinati°n * a / / c l e a~r ? YES ~ Mental Status Examination & Symptoms/signs] ! n o loss of consciousness NO I NO & c l e a r w i t h i n 15rain?

IPhysica,

still symptomatic~sign free ?

m, clear < 1 hour? I

YES

I Returnto participation I [ Homemonitoring 114.

Hospital