FDA Cleared Concussion Testing at Cali Kids Urgent Care

Concussion Care Providers Cali Kids Urgent Care

Living in south Orange County means nice sunny weather for kids and parents to enjoy sports, riding E-bikes and other physical activities all year round. Accidents and falls happen. According to the CDC a concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or by a hit to the body that causes the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth. This sudden movement can cause the brain to bounce around or twist in the skull, creating chemical changes in the brain and sometimes stretching and damaging brain cells. One important thing to note is that a concussion is not something that is diagnosed with brain imaging. A concussion is a clinical diagnosis. Cali Kids Urgent Care and Cali Quick Urgent Care located in Laguna Niguel is the only CIC certified IMPACT concussion provider in the south OC. This is an FDA cleared neurocognitive assessment program designed for detecting concussions.

ImPACT concussion assessment provides a comprehensive and medically validated model for concussion management based on currently accepted international guidelines and practices. ImPACT’s Concussion Management Model provides a complete framework for the overall management of concussion. ImPACT has undergone rigorous independent scientific validation over a 15-year period. No other neurocognitive test has undergone this process. We are thrilled to have this state-of-the-art program at our Cali Kids Urgent Care in Laguna Niguel, California.

The ImPACT concussion program was developed by a team of doctors who are world leaders in the field of concussion management. ImPACT team members have dedicated more than two decades to the scientific study of concussion and return-to-play protocol. ImPACT concussion tools can help answer difficult questions about a child’s readiness to return to school or an athlete’s readiness to return to play, thus protecting them from the potentially serious consequences of returning too soon. While traditional neurological and radiological procedures such as CT and MRI scans are helpful in identifying serious brain injuries (like skull fractures and hematomas), they are ineffective at identifying the functional effects of concussion. Consequently, clinicians often must rely on subjective observations or patient self-reports to diagnose and track a concussion. This is where ImPACt can help. ImPACT measures subtle changes in cognitive functioning that cannot be accurately measured by relying on a child or athlete to report symptoms. Children may have difficulty communicating symptoms, and athletes are notorious for hiding concussive symptoms, such as headaches, dizziness, and difficulties in thinking. Recent research has suggested that athletes at all levels of sport routinely hide their symptoms so they can continue to play. Most experts agree that relying on athletes to report their own symptoms is a dangerous practice.

As technology continues to improve our ability to find and monitor concussion symptoms, anyone who has potentially incurred a concussion can be benefited from technology such as ImPACT. At Cali Kids Urgent Care we treat patients from Laguna Nigel and are in close proximity to the cities of Dana Point, Mission Viejo, Rancho Mission Viejo, San Clemente, Aliso Viejo, San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Beach, Ladera Ranch, and Irvine. If you or a loved one has suffered a potential concussion, prompt medical care and then follow-up care is crucial to helping limit the symptoms and determine what type of care is needed. Always report any possible post-concussive symptoms to your medical providers so that they can do their best job with these important and hard to identify injuries. Careful monitoring is needed so that a return to normal activities, especially driving and participating in sports or work activities and ImPACT can help with doing this in the best and safest way possible.