Exertional heat stroke (EHS) is one of the most common causes of sudden death in athletes. It also represents a unique medical challenge to the prehospital healthcare provider due to the time sensitive nature of treatment. In cases of EHS, when cooling is delayed, there is a significant increase in organ damage, morbidity, and mortality after 30 minutes, faster than the average EMS transport and ED evaluation window. The purpose of this document is to present a paradigm for prehospital healthcare systems to minimize the risk of morbidity and mortality for EHS patients. With proper planning, EHS can be managed successfully by the prehospital healthcare provider.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common cause of death and acquired disability in adults and children. Identifying biomarkers for mild TBI (mTBI) that can predict functional impairments on neuropsychiatric and neurocognitive testing after head trauma is yet to be firmly established. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are known to traffic from the brain to the oral cavity and can be detected in saliva. We hypothesize the genetic profile of salivary EVs in patients who have suffered head trauma will differ from normal healthy controls, thus constituting a unique expression signature for mTBI. We enrolled a total of 54 subjects including for saliva sampling, 23 controls with no history of head traumas, 16 patients enrolled from an outpatient concussion clinic, and 15 patients from the emergency department who had sustained a head trauma within 24 hr. We performed real‐time PCR of the salivary EVs of the 54 subjects profiling 96 genes from the TaqMan Human Alzheimer's disease array. Real‐time PCR analysis revealed 57 (15 genes, p < 0.05) upregulated genes in emergency department patients and 56 (14 genes, p < 0.05) upregulated genes in concussion clinic patients when compared with controls. Three genes were upregulated in both the emergency department patients and concussion clinic patients: CDC2, CSNK1A1, and CTSD ( p < 0.05). Our results demonstrate that salivary EVs gene expression can serve as a viable source of biomarkers for mTBI. This study shows multiple Alzheimer's disease genes present after an mTBI.

Background:Pain control is a factor in the sideline treatment of competitive athletes. Ketorolac injections by team physicians as a pain control measure are seemingly becoming more mainstream, although there have been very little data published on its use.Hypothesis:Intramuscular ketorolac injections are being used regularly by orthopaedic surgeons and primary care sports medicine physicians in their care of athletes.Study Design:Descriptive epidemiology study.Methods:A 19-question survey was generated online for physician members of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, the Arthroscopy Association of North America, and the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine. The survey link was e-mailed, with reminders sent every 1 to 2 weeks, and results were collected from April to June 2011.Results:The survey was e-mailed to 6950 physicians, with 1100 respondents completing it (60% orthopaedic surgeons, 40% nonsurgical sports medicine physicians). Approximately 49% use intramuscular ketorolac in the treatment of athletes, primarily at the collegiate and professional levels; 95.8% reported effective pain control after administration; 2.9% reported bleeding complications; and 1.9% reported kidney complications from its use.Conclusion:Intramuscular ketorolac injections are used by approximately half of all team physicians in their sideline treatment of competitive athletes.

Epidemiological evidence suggests that female athletes may be at a greater risk of concussion than their male counterparts. The purpose of this study was to examine the biomechanics of head impacts associated with diagnosed concussions in a cohort of female collegiate ice hockey players. Instrumented helmets were worn by 58 female ice hockey players from 2 NCAA programs over a three year period. Kinematic measures of single impacts associated with diagnosed concussion and head impact exposure on days with and without diagnosed concussion were evaluated. Nine concussions were diagnosed. Head impact exposure was greater in frequency and magnitude on days of diagnosed concussions than on days without diagnosed concussion for individual athletes. Peak linear acceleration of head impacts associated with diagnosed concussion in this study are substantially lower than those previously reported in male athletes, while peak rotational accelerations are comparable. Further research is warranted to determine the extent to which female athletes’ biomechanical tolerance to concussion injuries differs from males.