Statistics show that 10-30% of athletes in youth sport will suffer a concussion during their sport season. Making an appropriate diagnosis and knowing when an athlete has fully recovered is critical in managing these injuries. Proper management and safe return to play begin with a Baseline Test.

A concussion baseline test is a series of physical and cognitive tests that measure healthy brain function before a sports season starts or prior to an injury. In the event of a concussion, the results of these tests can be used as a comparison to help make safer return to school and sport decisions.

Concussions are functional, not structural injuries. Therefore, diagnostic imaging such as MRI and CT are not useful for determining recovery. We need to make sure the student-athlete has returned to pre-injury function. This is where baseline testing comes in.

It is well established that relying on the disappearance of symptoms is a poor and DANGEROUS indicator of brain recovery. If a concussed athlete shows no more symptoms, this does not mean that they have fully recovered from their concussion. Research shows that prior to full recovery from a concussion, the brain is very vulnerable. Even smaller impacts can cause another concussion, which can result in severe brain injury or, in rare cases, death.

The safest thing that a concussed athlete can do is avoid returning to high-risk sports until after they have fully recovered from their concussion. Therefore, not just symptom recovery, but also pre-injury brain FUNCTION. Having access to baseline test scores after a concussion injury can provide healthcare practitioners with personalized, objective data that can be used to make more informed and safer return to play decisions.

The Peterborough Concussion Clinic is a certified member of Complete Concussion Management Inc. (CCMI). We have built our baseline battery around a comprehensive series of tests, which includes concussion and medical history, symptom score, orientation, auditory memory, concentration, visual tracking and speed processing, balance, postural sway, reaction time, delayed recall, neurocognitive testing and more. A similar protocol is endorsed in the National Concussion Guidelines for Athletes released by the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and The NCAA Best-Practices Handbook.