'Novel' data to reduce spinal injury in athletes?RSS Feed

New biomedical data gathered on spinal injury could potentially affect the safety and equipment standards for sportspeople, scientists have predicted.

In a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers explained how they fitted football players' helmets with padded sensors as part of the Head Impact Telemetry System in order to measure the location and magnitude of impacts to the helmet.

During the experiment, which was carried out on high school football players, one member of the team sustained a concussion and spinal injury in his neck.

Study collaborater Erik Swartz explained: "You can't create a cervical spine fracture in a healthy human, but here you have an actual event where we captured data during an actual cervical spine injury.

"We now have data that we know caused a serious spine injury in a healthy, 18-year-old strong-bodied athlete."

In other news, Case Western Reserve University scientists have successfully restored breathing in an animal model of spinal cord injury, potentially improving the outcome for those with the condition.

News by Serious Law. Expert legal assistance for those affected by spinal injury

Posted by Paul Breen
 

Spinal injury patient honours former carers

25 July 2011

A charity dedicated to treating those with a spinal injury has received a donation from one of its former patients.The Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre, situated in Salisbury, Somerset, accepted...

Read More...

Chronic pain 'not managed well'

22 July 2011

Chronic pain, for example caused by a spinal injury, is not managed well in the general population, and this problem is even worse in the homeless, research has shown.A study at St Michael's Hospital...

Read More...

Alzheimer's patients vulnerable to acquired brain injury?

21 July 2011

People in the early stages of Alzheimer's are more prone to falling, researchers found, indicating that they could be at a higher risk of spinal injury.Researchers at Washington University School of...

Read More...