High school and collegiate football athlete concussions: a biomechanical review

Abstract

Researchers are striving to understand the biomechanics of concussive injury that occur in the context of sport by using a number of methodologies. Animal models, video reconstruction, and helmet-based accelerometers have all been used, but have their limitations. The Head Impact Telemetry (HIT) System permits the real-time in vivo tracking of all impacts that occur on the football field and has been used in both the high school and collegiate setting. This review provides a theoretical discussion of concussion mechanics and examines the current literature on the effects of the number of impacts, impact magnitude, impact distribution, and concussion threshold in high school and collegiate football athletes recorded by the HIT System.