In fact, brain injuries cause more deaths than any other sports injury. Football Football is responsible for more than 250,000 head injuries in the United States. Boxing Nearly 90 percent of professional boxers have sustained a brain injury. Horseback Riding Brain injuries account for 60 percent of equestrian-related fatalities, and 17 percent of all equestrian injuries are brain injuries. Gymnastics Gymnastics has one of the highest injury rates among girls' sports and the risk of injury increases with the level of competition.
Cerebral concussions are a type of head injury that frequently occur among athletes.
Cerebral concussions are considered diffuse brain injuries and can be defined as traumatically induced alterations of mental status. A concussion results from shaking the brain within the skull and often causes shearing injuries to nerve fibers and neurons. Grading the concussion is a helpful tool in the management of the injury and depends on the number of previous concussions, duration of post-traumatic amnesia, loss of consciousness, and persistence of symptoms. According to the Cantu Guidelines, Grade I concussions usually are not associated with loss of consciousness and athletes may return to play if no symptoms appear for one week. Players who sustain a Grade II concussion usually lose consciousness for less than five minutes, and may return to play after one week of being asymptomatic.