ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews how the epidemiology of various sports-specific concussive injuries has influenced game-play alterations in order to make the sport safer for athletes. Concussion comes from the Latin word "concutere" which means to shake violently. In the 1300s, Lanfrancus became the first modern physician to define concussion as a transient alteration in cerebral functioning. The classification schemes were based on loss of consciousness (LOC) because it was previously thought that LOC was associated/required for diagnosis of a concussion. The glaring inaccuracy regarding the definition of concussion by the Zurich guidelines is that they propose a concussion is "a functional disturbance rather than a structural injury". Medical professionals should be ready to perform diagnostic assessment and evaluation for concussion in any sport, if the symptoms and mechanism of injury suggest potential concussive exposure. The chapter concludes the text with a collective review of research and understanding of the effects of chronic cumulative head trauma and development of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.
