Just a head knock? Emergency physicians need to get serious about concussion

Attention and awareness regarding concussion injury in Australia have significantly increased in the last decade. Although most of this increase is because of discussion regarding concussions from sporting endeavours, the majority of concussions are from non-sport environments including motor vehicle crashes, workplace incidents, falls, accidents, assault and intimate partner violence. In all cases, hospital EDs are the first point of contact, yet as argued in our Opinion here, there are concerns regarding the consistency of care protocols, because of a number of reasons, as well as management and follow-up clinical practices. Our Opinion is to provide a constructive discussion as well as calling for ACEM to support research to provide evidence-based data. Finally, we provide some recommendations that could be implemented immediately to improve clinical practice for presentations of concussion injuries in EDs.