The effects of sports injuries on the brain

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When an athlete suffered an injury in the past, the main focus of both researchers and clinicians was mainly directed to the affected peripheral structures. However, the current view of the World Health Organization (WHO) shifted this focus towards a more holistic rehabilitation approach with the introduction of the biopsychosocial model. This paradigm shift in patient care became also very present in sports rehabilitation and led to the development of a general Return-To-Sport-Algorithm. Nevertheless, current scientific research within this complex vision has made significant steps forward and contributed to new insights within this domain, but is still in its initial phase. This line of research will explore and document the function of the brain after (sports) injuries and its interactions with fatigue.

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PhD Alert: Bruno Tassignon
PhD Alert: Bruno Tassignon

Last Wednesday, October 6th, Bruno Tassignon has successfully defended his PhD Thesis. Functional performance tests and return-to-sport decision-making: Focusing on translational research with special interest in fatigue and the brain. Another successful collaboration between our group and the MFYS Laboratory of Prof. Romain Meeussen. Although the defence has already taken place, we do like to share the content of Bruno’s thesis as it holds some key practical implications.

PhD Alert: Jo Verschueren
PhD Alert: Jo Verschueren

On Wednesday, April 21st, Jo Verschueren will defend his PhD Thesis. The interaction of fatigue and adaptability with lower extremity functional performance tests. A wonderful collaboration between our group and the MFYS Laboratory of Romain Meeussen. His defence is public and can be joined through … http://www.youtube.com/VUBeadlesOffice (Wednesday April 21st. 11.45 - 13.00). A summary can be found behind this link.

Acute physical fatigue negatively affects screening measures (but not all)
Acute physical fatigue negatively affects screening measures (but not all)

Our last post was on the effect of mental fatigue on clinical decision tools for injury risk. Now we can top that up with a twin study looking at physical fatigue. Same overall conclusions, fatigue affects the outcome of employed screening tests. Consider then that when injuries occur on the field … usually, some form of acute fatigue is present.

Mental fatigue & balance test performance
Mental fatigue & balance test performance

This recent study we published is very fundamental but imagine the clinical implications. We employ balance tasks for risk assessment, return-to-play decisions, and performance measures. Normally in non-fatigued conditions. But, did you know the outcomes of these test change when the subject is fatigued?

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Bringing context to balance: development of a reactive balance test within the injury prevention and return to sport domain

Balance tests are commonly used in clinical practice with applicability in injury prevention and return to sport decisions. While most sports injuries occur in a changing environment where reacting to a non-planned stimulus is of great importance, these balance tests only evaluate pre-planned movements without taking these dynamics environmental aspects into account. Therefore, the goal of this paper was to describe the development of a clinician-friendly test that respects these contextual interactions and to describe the test protocol of an adapted Y-balance test that includes environmental perception and decision-making.

No evidence-based criteria exist to inform return to sport decisions after lateral ankle sprains
No evidence-based criteria exist to inform return to sport decisions after lateral ankle sprains

Just published in Sports Medicine, this systematic review was to identify prospective studies that used a criteria-based return to sport (RTS) decision-making process for patients with lateral ankle sprain (LAS) injury. We found that currently there are no published evidence-based criteria to inform RTS decisions for patients with an LAS injury. A narrative synthesis proposed a number of variables that could be used to develop a criteria-based RTS decision paradigm.