Student-athletes' recovery from a concussion should be assessed on a case-by-case basis, recommends the new sports-related concussion guideline from the American Academy of Neurology, published online Monday in the journal Neurology.
The new evidence-based guideline replaces the academy's previous version, released in 1997, which recommended grading concussions on a scale of 1, 2, or 3.
"We've moved away from the concussion grading systems we first established in 1997 and are now recommending concussion and return-to-play be assessed in each athlete individually," said co-lead author Dr. Christopher C. Giza, with the David Geffen School of Medicine and Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, in a statement. "There is no set timeline for safe return-to-play."
