Pre-injury Baseline Testing - why is it important?

Firstly, let's have a look at an injury protocol for an ACL. If you were to injure your ACL (a ligament in your knee) you will work with someone until it has completely healed, your pain/symptoms has resolved, your knee is functional, it can withstand the demands of your sport and you are confident with using your knee again. You do not return to sport until all of these factors have been met. How do we know when it is strong again? We test it, we compare it to the other side, we compare it to pre-season baseline testing.

Now let's look at a concussion, which is a completely different injury but nonetheless should have similar protocols. How do we know when you should return-to-sport? Well, a lot of current protocols rely on symptoms alone. Meaning you can return to sport when you feel better. This is a very poor way to manage an injury and a very good way to sustain a subsequent concussion or subsequent injury. We need to rely on testing to determine your recovery, not symptoms. The most accurate way to do this is to have baseline data on how well your brain is functioning!

Our baselines testing involves cognitive tests, memory tests, balance integration, visual testing, reaction times, neck testing and more. This provides a great baseline of where you are at. If you sustain a suspected concussion we can re-test you and compare the results to your baseline. This not only tells us if you are ok to return to sport safely, however it also indicates what we need to rehabilitate if anything is deficient!

Baseline testing is the best method that we currently have to determine how well your brain has recovered. If you return to sport too soon you can be at a higher risk of sustaining another concussion (at a lower force to what it should take), you can have a prolonged recovery and prolonged symptoms, you are at a higher risk of sustaining another injury (particularly lower limb), and you can develop poor compensatory dysfunctions.

I would recommend athletes who play high risk sports such as AFL, rugby, MMA, boxing, ice hockey, horse riding, motorsport and soccer to all have baselines testing, especially if you have a history of concussions.

Look after your brain. Maintain your sporting performance. Have longevity in the sport you love. Get your pre-injury baseline data!