U-M Doctor Working to Get Neurologists in the Game When it Comes to Sports Injuries

U-M Doctor Working to Get Neurologists in the Game When it Comes to Sports
Injuries

Michigan NeuroSport director and physician named to lead new sports neurology
division of American Academy of Neurology

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Oct. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On the football field,
the hockey rink or wrestling mat, an athletes' head can take a beating -- and
a University of Michigan neurologist is leading the charge to help doctors who
treat the brain better understand those sports injuries.

Jeffrey S. Kutcher, M.D., a sports neurologist and assistant professor of
neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School, was influential in
getting the American Academy of Neurology to establish a division of sports
neurology. And he recently was tapped to serve as the first chair for that new
section.

"We're not taught about taking care of athletes in neurology training," says
Kutcher. "Caring for athletes requires a different kind of approach."

Kutcher says that taking care of athletes presents a unique set of challenges,
including different patient expectations, unique practice environments, and
many additional outside influences.

"When I first found myself on the sidelines of a football game as a team
physician, I remember thinking that I might as well have been on Mars for as
much as my residency training prepared me for that environment," Kutcher says.

"But now I feel almost comfortable, or at least as comfortable as one can get
doing a hyper-focused neurological examination with a marching band directly
behind you, fans on top of you (sometimes heckling!), and coaches wondering
what's taking so long because you've had your thirty seconds."

Athletes often suffer from the kinds of problems that require a neurologist's
expertise: concussions, peripheral nerve injuries, migraine headaches or sleep
disorders.

The perspective for an athlete can also be very different from the typical
patient that neurologists are trained to treat, Kutcher adds. Athletes are
concerned about returning to an exceptionally high level of physical and
mental function that they consider normal. They are also looking to get back
in the game as quickly as possible.

Kutcher says he'd like to get more neurologists involved with the care of
athletes. He serves as consultant to the University of Michigan football team
and works regularly with the Eastern Michigan University football team --
often joining the teams on the sidelines at games.

He also works frequently with a variety of sports including soccer, ice
hockey, and wrestling and sees athletes from other universities including
Notre Dame, Rutgers and Purdue through the Michigan NeuroSport program, which
he directs.

Kutcher says the new sports neurology section of the American Academy of
Neurology will help raise the awareness among neurologists and spur more
interest in sports neurology training at medical schools. He is hoping to
update the academy's sports concussion parameters and develop a sports
neurology curriculum.

Kutcher says U-M also hopes to establish a sports neurology fellowship in the
Medical School next year.

The increased awareness will likely improve neurological care of athletes at
all levels of play, Kutcher says. And it will help elevate the status of the
field, which will spur more research.

"For a lot of neurologists, when it comes to athletes, some of the finer
points are a mystery. We weren't taught about it and our field has not
recognized that this population, and the neurological problems they
experience, are unique," Kutcher says. "We need to change that, and this is a
step in the right direction."

About Michigan NeuroSport: Michigan NeuroSport is a team of physicians,
researchers and medical personnel which provides comprehensive and advanced
treatment of neurologic disease. It specializes in the treatment and
prevention of neurological sports injuries, as well as the management of
primary neurological diseases in the athlete. More information is at
http://www2.med.umich.edu/departments/neurosport/.

SOURCE University of Michigan Health System

Mary F. Masson, mfmasson@umich.edu, or Nicole Fawcett, nfawcett@umich.edu,
both of the University of Michigan Health System, +1-734-764-2220