New pediatric concussion guidelines released

The first comprehensive pediatric concussion guidelines were released in June as part of a collaborative effort between researchers from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation.

The guidelines, developed by a panel of experts from Canada and the United States, provide evidence-based recommendations to standardize the diagnosis and management of concussion among children aged 5 years to 18 years, according to a press release from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. The guidelines provide information for health care providers, parents and caregivers on all levels.

Recommendations for health care providers include the following:

What to do in advance, or before a child engages in high-risk sports;
Red flags, such as the need for CT or acute headaches;
Advice that health care providers should provide to parents and caregivers upon discharge, regarding risk of re-injury, the management of sleep, headaches, social functioning and more;
Standards on when children can return to learning/playing; and
What to do if a child exhibits symptoms during re-assessment.

The guidelines were developed to satisfy the current need for standardization of the diagnosis and management of pediatric concussions because approaches vary among health care providers in how pediatric concussions are treated, especially on return-to-play and cognitive rest recommendations.

“There have been recommendations and policies on concussion in the past, but they tend to have focused on sports-related injury and not on children and youth. We’ve developed a reliable resource that is valuable for everyone affected by pediatric concussion: from children and their families, to health care providers, and to schools and recreational organizations. This is so important because children get more concussions than adults do, with increased risk because their brains are still developing,” researcher Roger Zemek, MD, FRCPC, of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, stated in a press release.

For the complete guidelines, visit www.onf.org/documents/guidelines-for-pediatric-concussion or www.concussionsontario.org/guidelines-for-pediatric-concussion.