Douglas Hammond’s research could make concussion diagnosis irrefutable

Moseley doctor Douglas Hammond is helping to drive a clinical research trial on concussion at Birmingham University to determine the injury purely on a physiological level.
Hammond hopes that his National Institute of Health Research-funded investigation may have found a test that could make the diagnosis of the injury irrefutable.
“We're hoping to find a correlation between players who have been concussed and those who haven't so we can set markers telling us if a player is concussed purely on a physiological level,” Hammond told TRP.
“We are also looking at the differences between players who had one concussion and the ones who had two.
“We have six tests and we seem to have potentially identified changes in brain biomarkers as potentially the key indicators of concussion. All tested players who suffered concussion have one particular marker raised while non-concussed players have normal levels.
“It's even more obvious for the players who suffered two concussions. It's promising so far, but not scientifically conclusive yet.
“Hopefully we'll be able to use this test in future to say a player is only fit to play once his levels are back to normal.”
Although, Hammond reckons the findings could be a game-changer in the battle against concussion he warns the players' attitude towards it needs to change.
He said: “Players need to understand that it's an important injury. But because there is no obvious physical mark it can be easy to think it's not important.
“One young player here at Moseley suffered concussion. He went through the RFU protocol and was deemed fit to play but he failed the new test we are working on.
“He was desperate to play and he said he was fine, but then admitted he didn't feel 100 per cent. So I kept him out for three weeks rather than the required six days.
“To play in the Championship brings lots of pressure financially, because salaries are not as great as in the Premiership. It's tough but we've got to be smart and safeguard players for life after rugby.
“Implementing the 10 minute concussion assessment period during games at Championship level is crucial to tackle this issue.
“The RFU expects Championship clubs to be as professional as Premiership clubs when it comes to concussion, and medical care as a whole, but to do so we need far more funding.”
Hammond is hoping to take his initial findings to the RFU on December 15 for their annual Doctor's day to bring the research to their attention. In the meantime, he is calling on concussed players to help conclude the research.
He added: “We need 25 patients who had a single concussion and 15 who had two. The quicker we test them the quicker we can analyse the findings and the quicker we can put it forward to be adopted by the RFU.”
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NICK VERDIER