Guest Post: InfraScanner-Concussion Awareness and Advocacy

Last season a 16-year-old New York prep football player died following a helmet-to-helmet collision. Damon Janes walked to the sidelines, collapsed, and was taken to a local hospital. After 3 hours a CT scan showed bleeding in his brain and was then transported to a trauma hospital, 2 hours away. Janes succumbed to the injuries 3 days later.

After a 10-round fight, 32 year old heavy weight champion Magomed Abdusalamov allegedly told New York State Athletic Commission physicians that he did not feel right. After a neurological test that required him to read a series of numbers, they sutured a cut above his left eye and allegedly told him he had a broken nose. They allegedly advised him to have his injuries looked at by a doctor within a day or two when he returned home to Florida. What they did not realize was that Abdusalamov’s brain had already started bleeding.

The State Athletic Commission Inspector assigned to monitor Abdusalamov that night noticed blood in Abdusalamov’s urine sample after commission doctors cleared the fighter – a possible sign of internal bleeding. According to reports, he suggested Abdusalamov’s trainers hail a cab to take him to the hospital emergency department. Abdusalamov was in a coma for weeks following emergency brain surgery to remove a large blood clot hours after the fight. Abdusalamov may never walk or talk again.

Prompt medical care after a traumatic injury can be the difference between life and death — also known as the “golden hour”. The InfraScanner offers a solution to two secondary impacts of concussion: brain bleeding and excess radiation exposure from a head CT scan. These are two very real concerns that are often overlooked in discussions about concussion management.

The InfraScanner is a non-invasive portable screening device that uses near-infrared (NIR) technology to assist medical professionals with a more accurate, expedited clinical assessment of the presence or absence of an intracranial hematoma in a matter of minutes. This cutting edge device is a groundbreaking tool for TBI and concussion management. It helps determine if a patient needs to be sent to a Trauma center for a CT scan and neurosurgical intervention or kept for close observation.

One CT scan is equal to 300-400 chest x-rays to the head and has been clinically established by peer review journals to increase the likelihood of cancer. 18.7 million head CT scans are given annually. The likelihood of a positive scan in this patient group is less than 10% and may be as low as 1-3% ¹. Because of a CT scan’s dangerously high levels of ionization radiation exposure known to cause cancer, the InfraScanner will lead to better patient care while at the same time reducing healthcare costs.

The InfraScanner was developed for use by the US Marine Corps and has been battlefield tested since 2008. There is currently no other FDA approved technology available which is similar.  The InfraScanner is currently being used by Emergency Medical Services, hospitals, sports medicine and has been in use by the Pittsburgh Steelers team neurosurgeon, Dr. Joseph Maroon, for the past two years.

For more information go to med-logic.us

 

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¹ Fox, W. Christopher, Min S. Park, Shawn Belverud, Arnett Klugh, Dennis Rivet, and Jeffrey M. Tomlin. Contemporary Imaging of Mild TBI: The Journey toward Diffusion Tensor Imaging to Assess Neuronal Damage. Neurological Research, n.d. Web.