Riders are used to hearing phrases like, “Every time, every ride,” and, “Mind your melon.” But even though helmet use is becoming more commonplace even at the highest levels, understanding of traumatic brain injuries and concussions remains murky to many.  

At the USEF Annual Meeting on Jan. 11 in Lexington, Ky., Lola B. Chambless, M.D. and the assistant professor of neurological surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Tenn.), conducted a town hall meeting on concussions. Here are just a few of the interesting facts she presented. 

• From 2002-2013, 45 percent of sports-related TBI admissions to trauma centers in the United States were for equestrian accidents.
• The same study noted a 50 percent risk reduction in TBIs with use of a helmet. 
• But current helmet use in equestrians is only 25 percent.  
• A concussion is a mild form of a TBI. A concussion is defined as a transient, trauma-induced alteration in brain function.
• It does not require a blow to the head.
• With a concussion, brain imaging will be normal.
• Loss of consciousness only occurs in less than 10 percent of cases.
• The most common symptom of a concussion is headache, which is reported in 55 percent of people.
• Second most common is cognitive/memory complaints (46%), and then dizziness (42%) and blurred vision (17%).
• Recovery time varies, with an average of 3.5 days.
• 80 percent of athletes recover from a concussion within a week. 
• 10 percent still have symptoms one year after a concussion.
• An athlete who sustains a concussion is four to six times more likely to sustain a second concussion.
• Sustaining a second concussion (“second impact syndrome”) before symptoms have fully cleared from a first one has a 50 percent mortality rate, and a 100 percent rate of permanent disability.  
• Helmets are designed to protect against other kinds of TBIs: skull fractures, intracranial hematomas, contusions, diffuse axonal injury and/or anoxic brain injury.
• Direct cost of treating a severe TBI averages $3 million, and recovery requires months or years.