Improvements in Symptoms, Processing Speed, Reaction Time and Visual Acuity in a College Rower with Post-Concussive Syndrome

Background: A 21-year-old, female, college rower with a history of 3 documented concussions, presented with symptoms of headache, brain fog, and difficulty processing information. Graded Symptom Checklist (GSC) severity was 32/162. Trails A (TA) time was 29.1 seconds, Trails B (TB) time was 62.8 seconds. Processing Speed (PS) was 55 symbols matched correctly in 2 minutes. Simple Reaction Time (sRT) and Choice RT (cRT) latency was 321 and 514 milliseconds respectively. Visual Acuity (VA) was 0.6 line difference.

Methods: Two separate, five-day, multimodal programs of receptor-based neurological rehabilitation was administered three times per day, one hour per session. Each session consisted of nerve stimulation to her right tibial nerve, and right peroneal nerve with simultaneous red/yellow right hemi-field visual evoked potentials, right median nerve stimulation, and all three branches of her trigeminal nerve on the left, various right-sided neuromuscular reeducation exercises, vision therapy exercises, vestibular rehabilitation exercises, hand-eye coordination exercises, and off-vertical axis rotations.

Results: At the end of treatment there were significant improvements in GSC (-78.13%), TA (-15%), TB (-17%), PS (+11%), sRT (-11%) latency, cRT (7.4%) latency, and VA (-66.6%).

Conclusion: Short duration, multimodal, intensive programs of receptor-based neurological rehabilitation may be a viable method to improve neurological integrity and performance in individuals with Post-Concussive Syndrome. The authors suggest further investigation into short duration, multi-modal, intensive approaches to restoring neurological function in individuals suffering from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI)