Back from the sideline, but back to baseline? A pediatric case study examining neuropsychological functioning after sustaining multiple sport-related concussions

ABSTRACT

Most individuals recover quickly from a concussion; however, youth who sustain multiple concussions may be at risk for long-term cognitive impairments. This case study examines the neuropsychological performance of a 13-year-old malewith five head injuries. After his first concussion during study participation (fourth injury overall), several improvements were observed, likely due to practice effects, yet after sustaining another concussion <2 years later,declines were observed in visuoconstruction, verbal memory, and intellectual functioning. Across serial re-evaluation, his vocabulary knowledge declined, and fewer improvements were observed than anticipated when accounting for serial practice effects, highlighting the possible cumulative impact of multiple concussions.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport-related
• multiple concussions
• baseline testing
• serial testing
• practice effects

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data are available to be shared with requestors upon reasonable request.

Statement of ethics

This study complied with the guidelines for human studies and was conducted in accordance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki. Written consent was obtained to publish data collected from this participant.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.