PTs and PTAs have an important role to play in concussion evaluation and treatment — but that means keeping up with the latest clinical information. That's where the next installment of the APTA Centennial Lecture Series comes in.
Titled "Get Your Head in the Game: Basic Concussion Assessment and Management," the two-day virtual lecture, to be held Aug. 27-28, is designed to give you the need-to-know information on an injury that occurs as much as 3.8 million times a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Presenters Lt. Col. Carrie Hoppes, PT, PhD, and Karen Lambert, PT, DPT, lead the event. Both are board-certified specialists in neurologic physical therapy.
Mark your calendars. The timing — just as school sports start back up — couldn't be better.
Between now and then, here are five resources that can help you get a running start on the presentation.
APTA's Concussion and Traumatic Brain Injury Webpage
Our webpage is a good jumping-off spot to investigate the topic. It includes links to a podcast, the APTA Academy of Neurologic Physical Therapy's Special Interest Group on brain injury, resources from other organizations, and more.
A New CPG on Physical Therapy Treatment After Concussion
This clinical practice guideline, which debuted in the spring, is a multi-APTA component effort that provides a set of evidence-based recommendations for the PT's management of patients who've experienced a concussive event. The CPG+ includes 43 recommendations that cover screening, diagnosis, examination, and interventions (available to APTA members only).
Guidelines on Pediatric Mild Traumatic Brain Injury From the CDC
This guidance, developed in 2018, was the first ever produced on mTBI in children, and it remains relevant today. The 19 sets of recommendations address the condition from diagnosis through management and treatment, and cover settings including primary care, outpatient settings, inpatient care, schools, and emergency departments.
Loads of PTJ Articles
APTA's research journal, PTJ — Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation, has a search feature that can help you uncover relevant research and other resources — with free access for members. (Tip: for a more refined search use the "advanced search" option; then scroll to near the bottom of the page to set your search results to gather more recent articles — we recommend 2016 and later.)
A Recorded E-Learning Course on Symptom Management
APTA partnered with the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Physical Therapists, a subgroup of World Physiotherapy, to provide this up-to-date (and affordable) presentation on the management of postconcussion symptoms from Julia Treleaven, PhD, BPhty, a lecturer and researcher at the University of Queensland, Australia. A major focus of the presentation is the importance of PTs to perform a skilled exam to determine whether the cervical spine is implicated in any of the symptoms.