Healthcare providers now have consistent, evidence-based guidance for diagnosing and managing mild traumatic brain injury, or concussion.

Shari Wade, PhD, Director of Research, Division of Rehabilitation Medicine, was one of the clinical experts who worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop 19 clinical recommendations that cover diagnosis, prognosis, management and treatment. The guidelines were published Sept. 4, 2018, in JAMA Pediatrics.

The recommendations include several key, practice-changing guidelines, says Wade, including identifying risk factors that might contribute to slower recovery; advice on avoiding routine neuroimaging for diagnosis; and optimizing recovery by allowing children to return to non-sports activities within days, rather than weeks, of injury.

The CDC followed a rigorous process guided by the American Academy of Neurology, and the 2010 National Academy of Sciences’ methodologies for developing evidence-based guidelines. The guideline authors also reviewed 25 years of scientific research.