Tackling Concussions: Joseph Congeni, M.D. (’84)
Feb. 18, 2019
Did you know, every one in five high school athletes will sustain a sports concussion during the season?
Joseph Congeni, M.D. (’84), a Northeast Ohio Medical University professor of pediatrics and director of sports medicine for Akron Children’s Hospital, knows about treating sports-related injuries. In a new study, Dr. Congeni is researching whether cooling athlete’s brains after a concussion can reduce symptoms and speed recovery time.
In a recent interview with Akron Beacon Journal’s Betty Lin-Fisher, Dr. Congeni shared, “Just like icing a hurt knee or ankle, cooling the blood may reduce swelling and prevent early cellular damage. Cooling therapy has long been used in treating heart attacks and brain injury in newborns…”
Dr. Congeni has asked six other children’s hospitals in the U.S. to join the study.