Impact of head injuries in rugby players

Описание: Simon Kemp (Chief Medical Officer, Rugby Football Union) discusses a new collaborative study and video, found here: (http://www.neurology-central.com/2016...)

The study (http://www.neurology-central.com/2016...) seeks to identify associations between head injuries during rugby players’ careers and long-term health consequences. The new study aims to decipher relationships between concussion and neurodegenerative disease, understanding the impact and risks for rugby players.

The research will reveal more about the potential medium and long- term risks and what the causes may be.

In a collaborative effort, bringing together experts from the Rugby Football Union (RFU; UK), The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (UK), Queen Mary University of London (UK), The Institute of Occupational Medicine (Edinburgh, UK), University College London (UK) and Oxford University (UK), a new research initiative, funded by The Drake Foundation, is aiming to decipher relationships between concussion and neurodegenerative disease.

The Rugby Football Union’s Chief Medical Officer, Simon Kemp, also added: “The next step for us a union and as a sport is progress beyond delivering ‘recognise, remove, recover and return’ and try to understand more about the possible longer-term effects on the health of the brain.”

The new findings will hopefully provide a novel set of evidence-based, high-quality data for analysing these potentially important neurological relationships in a large group of ex-athletes.