New Technology Promises Fewer Concussions, Better Management

Concussions are a fact of life in football, regardless of the level-youth, high school, college or the pros. According to recent studies, between 10 and 50 percent of high school players suffer concussions each season. Most are mild and lead to no long term effects, but others can have long-term consequences, ranging from persistent cognitive difficulties to depression. In rare cases, concussions can lead to coma or even death from a condition called second impact syndrome

Most of the football helmets currently in use do little if anything to protect brains from the forces that cause concussions. But technological advances in helmet design, while they may not make concussions in football a thing of the past, hold out the hope of a significant reduction in the number of concussions.

Riddell

In May 2002, after four years of research and development, Riddell introduced its first-of-its-kind “Revolution” helmet, a helmet which the manufacturer claims was specifically designed to help reduce the risk of concussions.  A study published in the journal Neurosurgery suggesting that athletes wearing the Revolution helmet had 31% fewer concussions has, according to an October 2007 article in The New York Times, been "strongly criticized  by several prominent experts because it was commissioned by Riddell and because it tested new Revolution helmets against reconditioned traditional models of indeterminate age."

Schutt

Schutt has developed a new model called the DNA using thermoplastic urethane liner to attenuate the energy of a blow to the head and foam-filled air bladders for fit.

Xenith

The new X1 football helmet by Xenith is the brainchild of former Harvard quarterback, Vin Ferrara. Employing a radically new technology inspired by a squeeze bottle in his medicine cabinet used to squirt saline into sinuses, the X1 helmet features 18 black, thermoplastic shock absorbing disks filled with air that can accept a wide rage of impacts and can still moderate the sudden jarring of the head that causes concussions. Moreover, laboratory tests have shown that the disks can withstand thousands of impacts without any notable degradation in performance, a longtime drawback of helmets using traditional foam padding.

The helmet, which MomsTeam’s concussion expert, Dr. Robert Cantu of Boston’s Brigham & Women’s Hospital, calls “the greatest advance in helmet design in at least 30 years,” is currently being field tested. It is certified by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment and will be on the market for around $350 beginning in October 2008.

Other new technology

In addition to advances in helmet technology and design have been technological and product innovations that also hold out the promise of increasing concussion safety:

• A New Hampshire company has developed a tiny instrument that fits inside the padding of a helmet to measure sudden movements of the head and can wirelessly alert a trainer on the sideline. Being tested at eight colleges and four high schools, the device may help to identify players who sustain a particularly dangerous blow to the head but fail to report it to medical personnel;

• To combat the problem of improperly reconditioned helmets (an estimated half of all helmets in use at the high school level have either been improperly reconditioned, have foam padding that has degraded over time, or fit poorly) that expose athletes to the lower-level impacts that cause the majority of concussions, a Washington company is now making stickers similar to the bar codes on grocery items that allow equipment managers to track a helmet’s age and reconditioning history;

• A Missouri company is developing a handheld device to determine the severity of concussions by reading the brain’s electrical signals, which may help inform doctors about which injured players should stay on the sidelines—or be taken to a hospital. The National Collegiate Athletic Assn. is planning a clinical trial later this year and the NFL is also eyeing the technology.