Motion lab for pre/post-concussion testing & return to play decisions in athletes

[K. Mitchell Barr]

Are any of you using your motion analysis laboratory to do pre- and post-concussion testing for the athletic population (either clinically or in research) to assist with determining when it is safe and reasonable for affected individuals to return to play? This could include things like dual-task ambulatory skills using motion capture systems, center of mass testing using your force plates or other. We are a primarily clinical lab and are wanting to develop a protocol like this to provide physicians, therapists, athletic trainers and coaches in our community a more objective way of assessing when an athletes balance and motor coordination are at least back to their pre-concussive state. We are interested in what's already being done elsewhere and what you find to be the most sensitive measures for this purpose that we might perform in our own lab. We have a 12-camera Vicon system with 2 force plates. Thank you in advance for sharing your experience and expertise.

Mitch Barr, PT
Motion Analysis Center
Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital
Grand Rapids, MI U.S.A.

[Bradford McFadyen]

Re: Motion lab for pre/post-concussion testing & return to play decisions in athletes

Are any of you using your motion analysis laboratory to do pre- and post-concussion testing for the athletic population (either clinically or in research) to assist with determining when it is safe and reasonable for affected individuals to return to play? This could include things like dual-task ambulatory skills using motion capture systems, center of mass testing using your force plates or other. We are a primarily clinical lab and are wanting to develop a protocol like this to provide physicians, therapists, athletic trainers and coaches in our community a more objective way of assessing when an athletes balance and motor coordination are at least back to their pre-concussive state. We are interested in what's already being done elsewhere and what you find to be the most sensitive measures for this purpose that we might perform in our own lab. We have a 12-camera Vicon system with 2 force plates. Thank you in advance for sharing your experience and expertise.

Mitch Barr, PT
Motion Analysis Center
Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital
Grand Rapids, MI U.S.A.

Hello, Although just beginning to use protocols for deciding return to play/function, you may wish to look at these recent papers from our lab. Cossette et al., 2014 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24726561), Fait et al., 2013 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22495102) and Fait et al., 2011 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21466078).
regards
BJMcFadyen

[K. Mitchell Barr]

Re: Motion lab for pre/post-concussion testing & return to play decisions in athletes

Thank you. I will.

[Andrew Lapointe]

Re: Motion lab for pre/post-concussion testing & return to play decisions in athletes

Are any of you using your motion analysis laboratory to do pre- and post-concussion testing for the athletic population (either clinically or in research) to assist with determining when it is safe and reasonable for affected individuals to return to play? This could include things like dual-task ambulatory skills using motion capture systems, center of mass testing using your force plates or other. We are a primarily clinical lab and are wanting to develop a protocol like this to provide physicians, therapists, athletic trainers and coaches in our community a more objective way of assessing when an athletes balance and motor coordination are at least back to their pre-concussive state. We are interested in what's already being done elsewhere and what you find to be the most sensitive measures for this purpose that we might perform in our own lab. We have a 12-camera Vicon system with 2 force plates. Thank you in advance for sharing your experience and expertise.

Mitch Barr, PT
Motion Analysis Center
Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital
Grand Rapids, MI U.S.A.

Hey Mitch our lab is just finishing up a study using force plate data and motion cap. The preliminary (force plate) results are going to be presented at this year's ACSM Annual Meeting in Boston. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first study looking at post-concussion kinematics. If you're interested send me a message and we can communicate via email.

Andrew