The King-Devick test in mixed martial arts: the immediate consequences of knock-outs, technical knock-outs, and chokes on brain functions

Exploratory Systematic Review of Mixed Martial Arts: An Overview of Performance of Importance Factors with over 20,000 Athletes

“…The higher frequency of head, neck, and face injuries reported seems plausible, and it is likely because attacking the head increases the chance to win by knockout or technical knockout (KO/TKO) [38]. Researchers found that the rate of fights finished by KO was 6.4 per 100 athletes-exposures, by TKO was 9.5 per 100 athletes-exposures, and combined incidence of match-ending head trauma of 15.9 per 100 athletes-exposures, which represents a higher rate when compared to other combat sports [39]. It is well established that head impacts can results in concussion and similar symptoms [29,38,40], especially when MMA athletes are finished via KO/TKO [29,38], with a higher risk of head trauma in heavier fighters [38,41,42].…”

“…Other types of injuries such as abrasion, contusion, fractures, strains, and sprains were also observed between MMA athletes [4,31,35,36]. Head traumas are a major concern due to the negative effects that this injury leads to, such as headaches, loss of balance, visual impairments, emotional disturbance, and neurocognitive deficits [38,39,[46][47][48]. At professional events, such as the UFC, a head injury rate of 35 injuries per 100AE is reported [43].…”

Approach considerations for the management of strangulation in the emergency department

“…Differing from other sports‐related brain injuries, the mechanism is more similar to other ischemic phenomena as opposed to blunt traumatic effect, although within striking‐inclusive sports such as MMA, blunt trauma is a clear confounder. 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 …”

“…Differing from other sports-related brain injuries, the mechanism is more similar to other ischemic phenomena as opposed to blunt traumatic effect, although within striking-inclusive sports such as MMA, blunt trauma is a clear confounder. [51][52][53][54] The combat sports use of the term "choke" is a misnomer, because these maneuvers are strangles and almost exclusively focus on vascular compression to accomplish the goal of inducing a submission by the opponent, or LOC if no voluntary submission occurs. 9 The anatomic target of sportive chokes is bilateral compression of the jugular veins and, with greater force, the carotid arteries.…”

“…The latter are exceedingly rare in the sportive context and generally accompany an arterial dissection and/or thromboembolic ischemic stroke as opposed to prolonged neck compression. Differing from other sports‐related brain injuries, the mechanism is more similar to other ischemic phenomena as opposed to blunt traumatic effect, although within striking‐inclusive sports such as MMA, blunt trauma is a clear confounder 51–54 …”