TBI and Professional Athletes

    /24-7PressRelease/ - December 06, 2007 - A traumatic brain injury (TBI) is caused by a blow, jolt or other injury to the head which causes disruption or trauma to the normal function of the brain. While TBIs are often caused by accidents, they can also result from professional and contact sport injuries.

TBIs can range in severity from mild (resulting in only dizziness or other brief change in consciousness) to extreme (resulting in an extended period of unconsciousness or even amnesia). The symptoms of a TBI are usually subtle and difficult to detect.

While symptoms of a TBI vary, the most common symptoms include:
· Loss of consciousness
· Headache
· Confusion
· Dizziness
· Ringing in the ears
· Bad taste in mouth
· Blurred vision
· Fatigue
· Lethargy
· Mood changes
· Trouble with memory, concentration, language or thinking
· The severity of the TBI symptoms, appear to determine the extent of the injury.

In the professional sports field, boxing injuries are a common cause of TBIs. Boxing injuries are different from other sports injuries because most boxing injuries result in blows to the head, which are generally considered illegal in other sports. Boxing injuries are especially common for professional boxers. Amateur boxers just don't suffer the amount or severity of head injuries that professional boxers do. Professional boxers accept blows to the head and accompanying injuries as just "part of the game." Cuts, bruises, repeated blows, and falls are all expected injuries that one may anticipate when entering the ring.

Unfortunately, as a result, professional boxers, as well as other athletes, often suffer brain damage. In the case of a boxer, when he is knocked out, he has generally suffered a concussion. Over time, multiple punches to the head can cause a case of "punch drunkenness" in a fighter who exhibits signs of inhibited thinking ability, headaches, blurred vision, or memory loss. In more serious cases, a boxer can be killed by a blow to the head, or suffer a lifetime of disability and diminished capacity due to brain damage. This is becoming more and more seen in other contact sports as well, especially football.

In an especially shocking incident, Chris Benoit, a professional wrestler who killed his wife, son and then himself in suburban Atlanta in June 2007, had brain damage caused by repeated concussions in the ring. According to two leading neurosurgeons, Dr. Julian Bailes of West Virginia University and Dr. Robert Cantu of Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts, an examination of Benoit's brain tissue revealed evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or brain swelling, a degenerative condition typically found in boxers but also found in recent years in the brains of four former N.F.L. players.

Visit the website of Trantolo & Trantolo, LLC for more information on TBIs and professional athletes.

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