S
simon
Guest
The article in last Thursdays "The Australian" about how the Socceroos were complaining of headaches and feeling groggy with the "hard" balls in Colombia during training, raises the issue of how deleterious repetitive hitting of a fast flying ball with your head can be. It's something that's not talked much about but it should at least be widely known - especially when we've got thousands of kids practising heading from young ages whilst their brains are still growing.
There follow two Dutch scientific papers that support earlier Nowegian research that show up to 39% of players can suffer some cognitive problems - mainly strikers and defenders who head the ball most often. There is also an American paper that shows that the forces involved at skull level with heading are considerable - nearly twice the impact (because of helmets) that the skull gets from tackles in American Football and stick hits in Ice Hockey - and opf course given its a skill that involves training there is far more heading in soccer than knocks on helmet in the other two sports.
Perhaps "heading" should be banned - well hands are anyway, so would it make mush difference?
The research (from Medline search):
Chronic traumatic brain injury in professional soccer players.
Matser JT, Kessels AG, Jordan BD, Lezak MD, Troost J
Neurology 1998 Sep 51:3 791-
OBJECTIVE: To determine the presence of chronic traumatic brain injury in professional soccer players. METHODS: Fifty-three active professional soccer players from several professional Dutch soccer clubs were compared with a control group of 27 elite noncontact sport athletes. All participants underwent neuropsychological examination. The main outcome measures were neuropsychological tests proven to be sensitive to cognitive changes incurred during contact and collision sports. RESULTS: The professional soccer players exhibited impaired performances in memory, planning, and visuoperceptual processing when compared with control subjects. Among professional soccer players, performance on memory, planning, and visuoperceptual tasks were inversely related to the number of concussions incurred in soccer and the frequency of ''heading'' the ball. Performance on neuropsychological testing also varied according to field position, with forward and defensive players exhibiting more impairment. CONCLUSION: Participation in professional soccer may affect adversely some aspects of cognitive functioning (i.e., memory, planning, and visuoperceptual processing).
Neuropsychological impairment in amateur soccer players [see comments]
Matser EJ, Kessels AG, Lezak MD, Jordan BD, Troost J
JAMA 1999 Sep 8 282:10 971-
CONTEXT: Soccer players incur concussions during matches and training sessions, as well as numerous subconcussive blows to the head from impacts with the soccer ball (headers). The combination of soccer-related concussions and the number of headers may be a risk for chronic traumatic brain injury (CTBI). OBJECTIVE: To determine whether amateur soccer players have evidence of CTBI. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Cross-sectional study of 33 amateur soccer players and 27 amateur athletes involved in swimming and track (controls) in the Netherlands who underwent interviews and neuropsychological testing. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Performance of soccer players vs controls on 16 neuropsychological tests having 27 outcomes. RESULTS: Compared with control athletes, amateur soccer players exhibited impaired performance on tests of planning (39% vs 13%; P=.001) and memory (27% vs 7%; P=.004). Among soccer players, 9 (27%) had incurred 1 soccer-related concussion and 7 (23%) had had 2 to 5 concussions during their career. The number of concussions incurred in soccer was inversely related to the neuropsychological performance on 6 of the neuropsychological tests. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that participation in amateur soccer in general and concussion specifically is associated with impaired performance in memory and planning functions. Due to the worldwide popularity of soccer, these observations may have important public health implications.
(Too right! Millions suffering these deficits leads to a lot of poorer work, academic and social performance globally.)
Comparison of impact data in hockey, football, and soccer.
Naunheim RS, Standeven J, Richter C, Lewis LM
J Trauma 2000 May 48:5 938-41
PURPOSE: To compare accelerational forces to the head in high school-level football, hockey, and soccer athletes. METHODS: Acceleration of impact was measured within the helmet of high school hockey and football players during actual game play. A triaxial accelerometer was placed at the vertex of the helmet immediately adjacent to the players head. Peak acceleration (in g's) was measured and the Gadd Severity Index and Head Injury Criterion score calculated during actual play periods in several games over four seasons. We also recorded acceleration of head impacts in high school-level soccer players who headed a soccer ball while equipped with a football helmet instrumented identically to the helmet used to record during football games. RESULTS: Peak accelerations inside the helmet for football averaged 29.2 g compared with 35 g for hockey (p = .004). There were no incidents of concussion or other traumatic brain injury during the recorded periods. In contrast, the peak accelerations associated with heading a soccer ball was 54.7 g (p = 2 x 10(-5) vs. hockey). CONCLUSION: Peak accelerations as measured at the surface of the head were 160 to 180% greater from heading a soccer ball than from routine (noninjurious) impacts during hockey or football, respectively. The effect of cumulative impacts at this level may lead to neurologic sequelae.
There follow two Dutch scientific papers that support earlier Nowegian research that show up to 39% of players can suffer some cognitive problems - mainly strikers and defenders who head the ball most often. There is also an American paper that shows that the forces involved at skull level with heading are considerable - nearly twice the impact (because of helmets) that the skull gets from tackles in American Football and stick hits in Ice Hockey - and opf course given its a skill that involves training there is far more heading in soccer than knocks on helmet in the other two sports.
Perhaps "heading" should be banned - well hands are anyway, so would it make mush difference?
The research (from Medline search):
Chronic traumatic brain injury in professional soccer players.
Matser JT, Kessels AG, Jordan BD, Lezak MD, Troost J
Neurology 1998 Sep 51:3 791-
OBJECTIVE: To determine the presence of chronic traumatic brain injury in professional soccer players. METHODS: Fifty-three active professional soccer players from several professional Dutch soccer clubs were compared with a control group of 27 elite noncontact sport athletes. All participants underwent neuropsychological examination. The main outcome measures were neuropsychological tests proven to be sensitive to cognitive changes incurred during contact and collision sports. RESULTS: The professional soccer players exhibited impaired performances in memory, planning, and visuoperceptual processing when compared with control subjects. Among professional soccer players, performance on memory, planning, and visuoperceptual tasks were inversely related to the number of concussions incurred in soccer and the frequency of ''heading'' the ball. Performance on neuropsychological testing also varied according to field position, with forward and defensive players exhibiting more impairment. CONCLUSION: Participation in professional soccer may affect adversely some aspects of cognitive functioning (i.e., memory, planning, and visuoperceptual processing).
Neuropsychological impairment in amateur soccer players [see comments]
Matser EJ, Kessels AG, Lezak MD, Jordan BD, Troost J
JAMA 1999 Sep 8 282:10 971-
CONTEXT: Soccer players incur concussions during matches and training sessions, as well as numerous subconcussive blows to the head from impacts with the soccer ball (headers). The combination of soccer-related concussions and the number of headers may be a risk for chronic traumatic brain injury (CTBI). OBJECTIVE: To determine whether amateur soccer players have evidence of CTBI. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Cross-sectional study of 33 amateur soccer players and 27 amateur athletes involved in swimming and track (controls) in the Netherlands who underwent interviews and neuropsychological testing. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Performance of soccer players vs controls on 16 neuropsychological tests having 27 outcomes. RESULTS: Compared with control athletes, amateur soccer players exhibited impaired performance on tests of planning (39% vs 13%; P=.001) and memory (27% vs 7%; P=.004). Among soccer players, 9 (27%) had incurred 1 soccer-related concussion and 7 (23%) had had 2 to 5 concussions during their career. The number of concussions incurred in soccer was inversely related to the neuropsychological performance on 6 of the neuropsychological tests. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that participation in amateur soccer in general and concussion specifically is associated with impaired performance in memory and planning functions. Due to the worldwide popularity of soccer, these observations may have important public health implications.
(Too right! Millions suffering these deficits leads to a lot of poorer work, academic and social performance globally.)
Comparison of impact data in hockey, football, and soccer.
Naunheim RS, Standeven J, Richter C, Lewis LM
J Trauma 2000 May 48:5 938-41
PURPOSE: To compare accelerational forces to the head in high school-level football, hockey, and soccer athletes. METHODS: Acceleration of impact was measured within the helmet of high school hockey and football players during actual game play. A triaxial accelerometer was placed at the vertex of the helmet immediately adjacent to the players head. Peak acceleration (in g's) was measured and the Gadd Severity Index and Head Injury Criterion score calculated during actual play periods in several games over four seasons. We also recorded acceleration of head impacts in high school-level soccer players who headed a soccer ball while equipped with a football helmet instrumented identically to the helmet used to record during football games. RESULTS: Peak accelerations inside the helmet for football averaged 29.2 g compared with 35 g for hockey (p = .004). There were no incidents of concussion or other traumatic brain injury during the recorded periods. In contrast, the peak accelerations associated with heading a soccer ball was 54.7 g (p = 2 x 10(-5) vs. hockey). CONCLUSION: Peak accelerations as measured at the surface of the head were 160 to 180% greater from heading a soccer ball than from routine (noninjurious) impacts during hockey or football, respectively. The effect of cumulative impacts at this level may lead to neurologic sequelae.
