Concussions a cause for concern

By Greg Gulas

BOARDMAN — As one of the top sports-medicine physicians in the area, Dr. Raymond Duffett has encountered his share of challenges over the years.

Duffett and his University Orthopaedics co-founder, Dr. Michael Miladore, have been YSU’s team co-physicians for the past 21 years. Duffett also has served as Austintown Fitch High team physician for 17 seasons.

Speaking to the Curbstone Coaches during Monday’s weekly luncheon meeting at the Blue Wolf Banquet Center, Duffett covered a myriad of sports-medicine topics, including, but not limited to knee and hip injuries and replacement; concussions, and stem cells which are being used in regard to micro-fracture techniques.

“The more things change, the more they stay the same,” he said. “It’s not the instrumentation and it’s not the components. It’s the surgeon, however, putting those components into place so you must choose that surgeon very carefully.”

With over 800 knee and hip replacements performed at Forum Health’s North Side facility per year and half of those attributed to the Duffett-Miladore team, receiving the state’s top ranking and a No. 6 ranking nationally pleases Duffett.

“The doctor is 50 percent of the grade and the hospital is the other 50 percent so everyone had a part in that overall success,” he said.

“We have an excellent group that practices orthopedics at North Side Hospital. The two-year retrospective study looked at hip fractures, total hip replacements, total knee replacements and spine surgery so to rank where we do is very, very humbling, to say the least,” he added.

Duffett, a three-sport standout at Canfield High, earned three letters each in both football and baseball and one in basketball and upon graduation went to Virginia Military Institute on a football scholarship, finishing his undergraduate studies in three years.

He later obtained his M.D. from the University of Cincinnati and along with Miladore, their practice has grown to where the breakdown includes half joint replacement and half sports medicine.

“I use Friday as my sports medicine day, addressing issues involving scopes, rotator cuff and shoulder reconstruction,” Duffett said.

One of the biggest problems facing athletes today is concussions.

“A concussion is a blunt, traumatic injury to the brain in any sport, usually more prevalent in boxing and football,” he said.

“Onset is immediate, not even delayed by seconds, and can last seconds, minutes, hours or even days.

“You don’t necessarily have to be knocked out; just seeing stars throws up a red flag,” Duffett said.

Studies are now being done on players who have suffered multiple concussions to see if there is any link with Alzheimer’s Disease.

“In boxers and football players, repeated concussions have a cumulative effect,” he said. “Permanent forgetfulness, slow in thinking and unsteadiness are just a few of the effects.”

He said that the NFL, by revising their policy on concussions, is taking a step in the right direction.

That new policy now states that, “once removed for the duration of a practice or game, the player should not be considered for return to football activities until he is fully asymptomatic, both at rest and after exertion, has a normal neurological examination, normal neuropsychological testing and has been cleared to return by both his team physician(s) and the independent neurological consultant.”

Duffett said orthopedics has come a long way over the past three decades.

“We’re trying to find the Holy Grail. As far back as 1983, we were hoping to get five or six years out of a replacement part and now, with the research and advances made on those many parts, 25-30 years in not an unreasonable return,” he said.

The next weekly meeting will be Jan. 4.