Neurological Injuries in Boxers: The Use of Tests
- Lawrence Charnas, MD, PhD;
- Reed E. Pyeritz, MD, PhD
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
To the Editor. — Boxing is a dangerous sport. Neurological injury is preeminent among the dangers and is of two general types, acute and chronic.1 The medical approaches to minimize the consequences of acute neurological damage are in wide use for the management of head trauma and generate little controversy in their application to boxing.2
There is little consensus, however, about the optimal approach for early detection of chronic brain injury. We share the widely (but not universally) held belief that identifying and suspending athletes with early signs of damage to the central nervous system or congenital anatomic defects that clearly predispose to further injury are both laudable and effective. The New York State Athletic Commission has adopted an approach that requires an electroencephalogram and cranial computed tomographic scan as conditions for licensure. The electroencephalogram has low sensitivity and specificity for the types of chronic damage to the
