Head Injuries

The headbanging collisions that thrill sports fans have lifelong effects on the athletes, with impairments in movement and thinking skills showing up 30 years or more after the concussions, researchers reported Tuesday. The slight deficits resulting from one or two concussions were similar to problems found in patients with the early stages of dementia, although they did not interfere with the daily life of the otherwise healthy men, researchers reported in the journal Brain.

QUICK TAKES A horse was injured and euthanized Tuesday during production of the racetrack drama "Luck," the third death in connection with the series, and HBO agreed to suspend filming with horses while the accident is investigated. The American Humane Assn., which oversees Hollywood productions, had issued an immediate demand "that all production involving horses shut down. " The animal was being led to a Santa Anita Park racetrack stable by a groom when it reared and fell back Tuesday morning, suffering a head injury, according to HBO. The horse was euthanized at the track in Arcadia, where "Luck" is filming its second season.

There's good news about basketball injuries among children and teens: generally, injuries decreased from 1997 to 2007. But the number of traumatic brain injuries soared. Data on about 4.1 million basketball-related injures treated in emergency rooms were examined by researchers from Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and Ohio State University . Rates went from a high of just over 400,000 per year between 2001 and 2002 to just over 300,000 per year in 2007.

Dabigatran (marketed as Pradaxa) is a new drug used by a growing number of Americans with atrial fibrillation. It's both easier to take and more effective at reducing the risk of stroke than warfarin, a drug that's been in use since the 1950s. But a case report published this week underscores a danger with the new medication: If a patient taking it is bleeding into the brain or elsewhere, there is currently no fast, effective way to reverse the blood-thinning agent's effects. For one 83-year-old man who was taken to the University of Utah Hospital's emergency department after falling and hitting his head, the result was death.

Head injuries may be linked with subsequent violent behavior in young people, a study finds. The study, published the June issue of the journal Pediatrics , followed 850 ninth-graders from four schools who were at risk for dropping out of high school. They had grade-point averages of 3.0 or below at the end of eighth grade and were not emotionally or developmentally impaired. Researchers conducted yearly interviews with the participants, and in addition to asking about head injuries and violent behavior, test subjects were also asked about other issues such as substance abuse, nonviolent delinquent behavior and sexual activity.

The tall, handsome man entered the room slowly, but with head held high. He was once heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Now, he moved along behind a walker. Could it have been 1973, 37 years ago, that Ken Norton had broken Muhammad Ali's jaw and won his title? Could this be the same once-great athlete who had forced the state of Illinois to change its high school track and field entry rules because he had won all eight events he tried? The others swarmed to greet him. Men with limps, flat noses and faces of scar tissue rushed to pose for pictures with him, fists clenched in the traditional boxing poses.

As concussion-stricken Sidney Crosby took his first strides on the ice in Pittsburgh in more than two months, NHL general managers on Monday took tentative strides toward minimizing and treating head injuries ? a hot topic since Boston's Zdeno Chara wasn't suspended for a hit that left Montreal's Max Pacioretty with a concussion and fractured vertebra. Commissioner Gary Bettman opened the three-day session in Boca Raton, Fla., by introducing a five-point plan highlighted by a new protocol for head injuries.

Ron Salcer, a longtime hockey agent based in Manhattan Beach, spent most of last week talking business with New York Rangers forward Derek Boogaard. When they met to celebrate Boogaard's final night in Southern California, Salcer brought his family. "We had a great dinner. My daughter said how good he looked, how happy he was," Salcer said. "We said goodbye Wednesday night, he traveled Thursday and on Friday I got the phone call from his brother. " The call brought unfathomable news.

A baby boy was in critical condition Tuesday night at an Oxnard hospital after his stepfather dropped him on his head earlier in the day, police reported. Paramedics found 21-month-old Angel Frias unconscious when they arrived at the family home in the 1700 block of Gisler Avenue in Oxnard. He was immediately taken to St. John's Regional Medical Center, where he was being treated for serious head injuries.

An autopsy Monday in Atlantic City, N.J., showed that boxer Stephan Johnson died Sunday of head injuries he had suffered Nov. 20 in a junior-middleweight bout there against Paul Vaden. The 31-year-old New York fighter, who had suffered previous head injuries, was knocked out by Vaden and never regained consciousness. Johnson continued to box, even after his manager and mother had urged him to quit after a knockout in a fight in Toronto sent him to the hospital last April.

Keith Primeau has not put on his full hockey equipment since the day he retired from professional hockey, a career cut short by several concussions, not all of them documented. To say he has good days would be stretching the definition. "I can honestly say here that there isn't a day that goes by that I don't sense I've damaged my brain," said Primeau, who retired in 2005 at 34. "Whether I stand up and get a headache or I'm resting and I get a headache, I know exactly why I had to stop playing.

Sports fans have been buzzing over New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's limitations at practice, while he nurses an injured left shoulder. A concussion sustained three weeks ago has kept the Cleveland Browns' Colt McCoy out of the game. And though Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys is expected to play the New York Giants this weekend, he's been practicing with a wrap around his bruised hand. When it comes to injuries, serving as quarterback is probably all it's cracked up to be. (Quarterbacks, indeed, seem to have had it rough this year.)

KINGS TONIGHT AT CHICAGO When: 5:30 p.m. Where: United Center. On the air: TV: FS West. Radio: 1150. Records: Kings 17-14-5; Blackhawks 23-9-4. Update: Not making the trip with the Kings was injured left wing Simon Gagne, who is out with a suspected head injury. Gagne suffered the injury late in the first period against the Coyotes on Monday, played some of the second but was not on the bench in the third. He has a well-known history of concussions.

The horror stories in pro sports are coming so fast and furious that their significance is being lost in their numbers. It should be the other way around, but it's not. Another concussion. Ho hum. Player A will sit out two games, Player B a month. Page 5. Another league investigation, maybe some fines. Yawn. — After the Oct. 23 game against the New York Jets, San Diego Chargers guard Kris Dielman got on the plane to return home. During the game, he had taken a hit loud enough to be heard on TV. He staggered, looked disoriented and was approached by two concerned game officials.

For Mike Richards, there are many questions and few answers at this stage of his recovery from a head injury suffered Dec. 1. Such is the nature of a concussion. The Kings aren't using that word - just as they did not do so last season with Drew Doughty. But they, and Richards, are showing the proper measure of caution, meaning a return to the lineup could take some time. "It's frustrating watching and not being out there and obviously you want to go there, but you don't want to come back when you're not healthy and reinjure yourself," the center said Saturday morning.

The NHL gave Brendan Shanahan a hammer. And though the new czar of discipline is swinging it more forcefully than anyone expected, the league insists the hammer won't be replaced with a feather. Shanahan, head of the league's new player safety department, has aggressively carried out the NHL's overdue directive to punish players who hit opponents in the head. Predictably, he has faced a backlash, maybe because his decisiveness and clarity are startling after Colin Campbell's meek, muddled rulings.

A 2-year-old boy lost his foot and a 4-year-old girl suffered major head injuries when their allegedly intoxicated mother overturned the sport utility vehicle she was driving near Lancaster early Sunday. Four other children suffered mild to moderate injuries in the 6:15 a.m. accident, the California Highway Patrol reported. Stanesha Nicole Allen, 31, of Lake Los Angeles was driving a 2002 Toyota Sequoia when she drifted off Avenue I, a two-lane paved road, and lost control of the car, according to CHP Sgt. Denise Joslin.

Rates of abusive head trauma in children under age 5 rose during the last recession, suggesting that economic woes may have led parents to lash out against their kids, researchers reported Monday in the journal Pediatrics. The data also suggest that physicians today may want to be extra vigilant for signs of child abuse as economic conditions remain in the doldrums, the team wrote. The notion that economic hardship leads to increases in child abuse is not new -- scientific research and anecdotal reports have long shown a relationship.  For example, the Los Angeles Times reported during the recession in 1994 about increases in child abuse and neglect in Los Angeles County.  In recent years, the co-authors noted in the Pediatrics study, articles in the popular press including this one and this one have again stoked concerns that abuse was on the rise as the economy worsened.