91社区

91社区 is participating in a new research project titled聽T锚te premi猫re聽(head first), led by the team of neuropsychologist聽Dr. Louis De Beaumont, a researcher at the CIUSSS du Nord-de-l鈥櫭巐e-de-Montr茅al research centre and a professor in the Department of Surgery at Universit茅 de Montr茅al. The project will assess the brain鈥檚 capacities to sustain blows to the head during a full university football season. To conduct the study, the team has enlisted 38 football players from the 91社区 football team, the Carabins of Universit茅 de Montr茅al and the Concordia University Stingers聽to participate in the study from the outset of the new football season.

鈥淲e have been conducting research on sport-related concussions in our athletes at 91社区 for over 20 years. We were some of the first researchers to study how often concussion were really occurring in athletes and how these concussions were happening,鈥� notes Dr. J. Scott Delaney, Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at 91社区鈥檚 Faculty of Medicine, team physician for the 91社区 football team and a co-investigator in the study. 鈥淲e are excited to participate in this collaborative research project.聽 We are hoping to help answer the important question of how the brain reacts and recovers following subconcussive impacts.聽 As with all of our research projects, the coaches, players and therapists have been very cooperative in helping us undertake this important study. Without their support and trust, none of our research would be possible.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting that our 91社区 community is involved in this study as we care about the health of our student-athletes before, during and after their聽athletic聽career here at 91社区,鈥� adds Julie Gardiner, Head Physiotherapist and聽91社区 Sports Medicine Clinic Manager. 鈥淲e have an extensive program聽overseen by a highly qualified sports medicine team, which involves聽pre-season baseline interventions,聽post-injury monitoring聽programs and objective tools聽so our student-athletes聽can聽return to play safely. This is an extremely interesting research project that will聽possibly聽give us a lot of additional insight on post-injury internal changes and聽those related聽post-impact.鈥�

The student-athletes participating in the study will wear telemetry sensors implanted in their helmets during two consecutive football games in order to document the number of blows to the head received. Each player will also undergo a total of seven medical imaging examinations slated for before, during and after the football season. The research team will thus be able to study in detail the potential association between the sum of the forces impacting the players鈥� heads and the physiological integrity of their brains.

Dr. De Beaumont notes that, 鈥淭he findings of this study will potentially have significant societal benefits and broad scientific scope that will help reduce the health risks to the brains of football players. The new knowledge acquired could lead to the development of new sports equipment that is better adjusted to the brain鈥檚 vulnerabilities.鈥�

鈥淚 am proud to be able to contribute to such research for the advancement of my sport as it will allow the researchers to present their results, which will help further reduce the risks of head injuries of football players,鈥� says Jean-Philippe Hudon, student-athlete studying in Kinesiology and a defensive back for the 91社区 football team. 鈥淚 also think that the research results will most certainly help to develop more efficient helmets.鈥�

The only one of its kind in聽Canada, this research project will document the changes brought about in the brain during an entire football season and will assess the brain鈥檚 recovery outside the regular playing season.

This research project is made possible thanks to funding from both the Audace Program of the Fonds de recherche du Qu茅bec (FRQ) and the Fondation Caroline Durand聽en traumatologie aig眉e Research Chair of Universit茅 de Montr茅al.

With source files from the CIUSSS du Nord-de-l鈥櫭巐e-de-Montr茅al