A Utah study has found that youths suffering sports-related head injuries have received more head CT scans since the state passed a concussion and youth sports law in 2011, according to Science 2.0.
The study looked at Intermountain Healthcare's emergency department database for 19 hospitals between 2009 and 2012. The researchers found that the number of children coming into emergency departments for sports-related head injuries increased by 43 percent in 2012, while the total number of CT scans conducted on those children increased by 17 percent.
According to the researchers the vast majority of additional scans turned out to be negative, while several more serious head injuries were caught. "What I don't want this study to come across as is saying concussions don't matter," William McDonnell, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah, said. "They definitely do--but the important thing is to treat them medically correctly." Article