On our show this weekend we are joined by our guests Tom Gibson, a physical therapist, and Dr. Melissa Tabor, a non-surgical orthopedic specialist, in a discussion about concussions. We will talk about the symptoms of concussions, what doctors and coaches look for in athletes who may have concussions from the sidelines, and the short and long term effects of concussions. We have many stories about concussions to share today, and will be taking comments and questions from callers.

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Listen to August 18, 2013 episode

Female: Good evening everyone! It is now 6:06 Saturday. Time to get some good tips on The Conversation on News Talk WOKV where health and wellness are explained. I’m your host Roxanne Johnigean. I’m here of course with your weekend expert Dr. Ali Kasraeian. Remember we want to here from you. Give us a call on the listener line at 340-0690. Good evening, how are you doctor?

Dr. Ali Kasraeian: Good evening, how are you doing?

Roxanne Johnigean: I’m doing very well.

Dr. Ali Kasraeian: The Jaguars won.

Roxanne Johnigean: I’m so excited about that! I think it’s a sign of good things to come.

Dr. Ali Kasraeian: I’m sad to say I was walking towards the boat to water taxi over whenever people announced that we saw fireworks go off so we assumed that we did something good.

Roxanne Johnigean: I was working, so…

Dr. Ali Kasraeian: So today, on the breath and the cusp of our wonderful victory and a new era of the Jaguars, we are going to talk about a very interesting topic of concussions. I personally have some stories that are, maybe one fun story, and a couple guests today. Tom Gibson, a very, very close friend of mine who is a physical therapist by trade, a sufferer of many concussions in the past through an illustrious rugby career and founder of AmeriCare Home Health where he actually, I want to thank you personally because you help a lot of our patients out with dealing with situations where they may not be able to get access to certain things in terms of healthcare and things of that nature on a daily basis at home when they can’t get out. You guys go above and beyond to help people, especially in light of the healthcare economy situation that’s going on where some people may need more help than they can get.

Tom Gibson: Thank you and it’s a pleasure to be here! I haven’t been on the radio for a while. You were on –

Dr. Ali Kasraeian: I remember!

Tom Gibson: On the radio with me a year or so ago. It’s been off. I’m glad to be back though!

Roxanne Johnigean: Welcome back!

Tom Gibson: Thanks so much! I have the TV wife but I apparently have the face for radio.

Dr. Ali Kasraeian: For people that don’t know, and Staci will probably kill us. Staci Spanos is Tom’s better half and she –

Tom Gibson: Yeah. I did marry up, okay? So anyway, it’s my pleasure to be here and talk about this topic tonight. It’s great because as you mentioned, I’ve suffered a few. I’ve been through it, and we have a great expert tonight with us.

Dr. Ali Kasraeian: Absolutely. Melissa Tabor is a non-surgical orthopedic specialist. This is a very interesting field where she completed her family practice medicine thought she wanted to do something along this line. Did a fellowship at Duke in sports medicine so now her practice is exclusively related to sports medicine issues. I know when I had my injuries a lot of the times some of the stuff that you said yourself was very helpful in getting me back on the field. I retrospectively appreciate your field of medicine. Welcome!

Dr. Melissa Tabor: Thank you! Thank you for having me here on the show.

Dr. Ali Kasraeian: So why is this important?

Dr. Melissa Tabor: This is very important because a lot of our athletes, a lot of our parents, coaches, they still lack some education. And a lot of rule changes have been going on in the last several years. The biggest of which was in 2008 at the Zurich conference and more recently, the Florida high school athletic association has made some changes to their rules as well. So we want to make sure we get the information out there so everybody can be safe and play some good sports.

Dr. Ali Kasraeian: Is this the changes that came in basically so that the, I would assume the recognition of the symptoms and signs of a concussion, which are very vague. They may be very nonspecific and difficult to get, especially I know I got a couple hits playing pretty competitive soccer growing up and I didn’t want to come off the field so I wouldn’t say anything. Now we are educating the people that can objectively look at the situation and find out when people need to get off the field to prevent debilitating injuries that may occur.

Dr. Melissa Tabor: Absolutely. It’s better to sit out one game, maybe two, than to have to sit out their entire season. That’s a big thing that we tell a lot of our athletes. Going forward in their lives they only have one brain. So you need to protect that now when you’re younger and then you’ll be able to live your life fully.

Dr. Ali Kasraeian: What started all of this? My brother’s an orthopedic surgeon. He’s actually a sports medicine specialist and I called him as his urologist. Fortunately we don’t see too many concussions and to warn our listeners out there, if you get a concussion and an urologist comes at you, run. And find someone like Melissa to take care of you. That being said, my dad was probably our doc for our team and he did a fantastic job because we all came out okay, relatively speaking. So did something happen? He was telling me some stories of kids that have concussions and go back on the field and some really sad stories emerged from this.

Dr. Melissa Tabor: Yeah, the under diagnosis of these concussions leads to athletes continuing to play and they’re at risk for what’s called second impact syndrome.

Dr. Ali Kasraeian: Okay.

Dr. Melissa Tabor: Some of these athletes have suffered from the second impact syndrome and they go into these debilitating illnesses where their brain might swell. Rarely, they have a death or two.

Dr. Ali Kasraeian: Wow.

Dr. Melissa Tabor: But mostly that’s the biggest thing we’re trying to prevent. The deaths and the brain swelling and just future, like I said, disabilities in general.

Dr. Ali Kasraeian: As a specialist in this type of field looking with a special interest in someone that may be suffering from a concussion. Let’s say that Tom and I are competing. I go in for a header. Tom comes out with a fist in my head and I’m seeing stars. What are some things that you kind of look at immediately to assess whether this is something that is important to address, get me off the field, give Tom a card?

Dr. Melissa Tabor: Yeah, Tom’s getting a red card absolutely. Tom, you’re out! Sorry buddy.

Tom Gibson: I should!

Dr. Ali Kasraeian: Can’t believe you did that!

Tom Gibson: It was St. Patrick’s night.

Dr. Melissa Tabor: So the biggest thing and one of the things that the FHSAA has said that we’ve asked the officials to look for players that might be seeing a little bit in their fog, or they’re not seeming quite right, they’re kind of confused on the field, they’re complaining of headaches, dizziness, nausea – any symptom like that. Like you said, these are kind of general symptoms that could be other things that are going on but typically our athletic trainers are extremely well trained in it and they know what to look for. And it’s better to be cautious and keep them out than to leave them in with a headache and have them wandering around the field, wondering what play is going on. Then they are scoring for the other team.

Dr. Ali Kasraeian: How quickly after the injury do you guys look for this stuff?

Dr. Melissa Tabor: Right away. So it’s almost immediate. When I’m on the sideline, that athlete comes over. The athletic trainer usually looks at them and says hey doc, I think I have somebody with a concussion; can you take a look at them? We go through a whole form. It’s called the SCAT 2 form of memory tests, balance tests, symptoms and we make a decision at that time. As far as younger athletes are concerned, especially athletes that are 10 and over, that kind of pertains more to the SCAT 2 form, we’ll keep them out. Where as if an adult was having these symptoms, we might be able to assess them, decide it’s not a concussion and put them in. Like I said, that’s very rare, only in extreme cases in more elite sports and adults. As far as our conversation tonight, more geared towards high school and adolescence they’re coming out. End of story.

Tom Gibson: Dr. Tabor, I’ve got to ask you something. Before we get into some of the assessment a little bit, and you are very successful over at Emas Spine and Brain I know with which you’re doing over there. When we’re talking about this, how important is the role of the parent? Be