Mercy Neurosurgeon Dr. Charles Park Discusses Concussions and Their Treatment

The 2015 Will Smith film, "Concussion," has called a lot of attention to this form of brain trauma that doctors have known about for a long time. Doctors are now taking a new approach for dealing with many of these common head injuries.

"Now we're taking it (concussions) seriously," said neurosurgeon Dr. Charles Park, Director of The Minimally Invasive Brain and Spine Center at Mercy. "Before, when we were kids, we were banging heads or something like that, and they'd say, 'OK, play through it. Show us your toughness.'"

But now, Dr. Park notes that there is a new awareness about recognizing and treating concussions.

"Rest is the most important thing," Dr. Park said. "Don't rush into going back to work so quickly or going back to sports, but really you need the proper rest for the brain to recover itself."

Whether it's from sports injuries or other head trauma, concussions usually occur to the front and back of the brain.

"So let's say you have sudden deceleration injury," Dr. Park said. "Your skull is going forward and stops all of a sudden. And what happens, the brain will continue to go forward because it's suspended viscerally in liquid, and when that happens it will hit against this front part of the brain.

"You can see there's very, very sharp edges, and the skull will hit the brain and will cause a trauma called the first injury and then what happens as the brain continues to go forward, it will then bounce back and then the back part of the brain will hit the back part of the skull."

"So if you don't rest properly, and your brain get repeatedly traumatized, then the damage will become more or less permanent."

To view Mercy neurosurgeon Dr. Charles Park’s interview regarding concussions, click here.