The Development of Boxing-Related Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

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The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) states, “A high 90% of boxers will sustain at least one brain injury by the time their career ends.” (AANS, 2010) The British Board of Sports Medicine reports from 1998 to 2006, there were 70 deaths caused by injuries related to the sport of boxing. (Espinoza) Boxing is an art of attack and defense with the fists and is practiced as a sport. Boxing at one point was one of the components of the Ancient Olympic Games from 644BC and was banned from Roman times until the 17th century. In recent times there has been widespread debate in both the medical and lay press about the neurological risks of boxing with many calls to ban boxing as a sport. This review seeks to establish evidence for the development of boxing-related chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The review also seeks to establish and determine the relevance of this information to the modern day sport. As medical presence within the sport increases and with modern boxers likely to have shorter careers, a reduced exposure to repetitive head trauma with improved treatment and understanding of the development of CTE will occur. This should lead to the incidence of CTE diminishing in boxing populations. (McCory, Tsharni & Cameron, 2007)
Both conditional and unconditional logistic regression models were used to assess risk factors for injury. Accord to the “Southern Medical Journal’s Result; overall incidence rate of injury was 17.1 per 100 boxer-matches, or 3.4 per 100 boxer-rounds.” (Lipsey) The Southern Medical Journal’s also reports that facial laceration accounted for 51% of all injuries, followed by hand injury (17%), eye injury (14%). and nose injury (5%). (McCoy) Professional boxing is associated with a risk ...

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Reference
Bailey, D., Jones, D., & Sinnott, A. (2013). Impaired cerebral haemodynamic function associated with chronic traumatic brain injury in professional boxers. Retrieved from http://www.clinsci.org/cs/124/0177/cs1240177.htm
Clausen, H., McCrory, P., & Anderson, V. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/39/9/661.full
Espinoza, J. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.askmen.com/sports/fanatic_300/316_which-is-more-dangerous-boxing-or-mma.html
McCory, P., Tsharni, Z., & Cameron, P. (2007, January 06). The evidence for chronic traumatic encephalopathy in boxing. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.2165/00007256-200737060-00001
McCoy, S. J. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.sma.org
McKee, A., Cantu, R., & Nowinski, C. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/cste
Lipsey, J. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://sma.org/southern-medical-journal/

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