By PrepsKC staff
Posted: September 5, 2017 - 11:02 AM

These days it is hard to talk about football at any level without discussing concussions. Whether it is concussion prevention, management or treatment and what concussions can lead to it is the hot topic that has everyone in the game taking notice.

The Sports Medicine and Performance Center at the University of Kansas Health System is leading the way in the Metro in terms of concussion education and treatment. The Center is a place for all athletes from youth to the Royals and Chiefs and making sure athletes are treated properly and return to play safely is their No. 1 goal.

Dr. David Smith is a member of the staff of The Sports Medicine and Performance Center with a focus on concussion in athletes and wellness/preventative medicine. He is also a team physician for the Kansas City Royals. He spoke with Sportsradio 810 earlier this season and said concussions is the No. 1 topic but not just for football.

“The hot topic in sports medicine is concussion, and specifically with football,” Dr. Smith said. “Which is a bit unfortunate because all sports that involve contact or collision can include a concussion as one of the injuries that we will see.”

In the last year the work in this area has taken many steps forwards starting with an international conference on concussions in Berlin, Germany. The experts who met there came up with a consensus statement on concussions. This is the fifth time this meeting has taken place.

Smith said this new statement is a road map for concussion treatment.

“This consensus statement really guides our practices,” Dr. Smith said. “It’s not really intended as a true legal standard of care but just here is where we are at with concussions. It serves as a guide. It’s consistent with a reasonable practice of those of us who take care of concussions in our office.

“The Berlin guidelines you hear about they actually published these in April in fact you can get them online and review them. They are very detailed. As we move forward of course more and more concussion research is being done and will guide us into the future.”

The Sports Medicine and Performance Center has more detailed information on its concussion care and general concussion care on its site. You can find that information at the link below.

http://sportsmedicine.kansashealthsystem.com/services/concussion-care

For more sports medicine articles and information on the Sports Medicine & Performance Center at the University of Kansas Health System, go to sportstmedicine.kansashealthsystem.com or follow @KUSportsMed on twitter.

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• Athletic Trainer Spotlight: Caitlin Truhe 11/21
• Workouts to Help Prevent Sports Injuries 11/8
• Sports Performance: Nutrition for Athletes 11/1
• Having fun, learning and helping others 10/17
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• It's Supplemental 3/28
• Preparing in the offseason 12/20
• The difficulty of managing concussions 11/14
• You need a team to care for your athlete 10/31
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• The concussion recovery journey 10/5
• Key diagnosis gets player back on the field 9/28
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