An interest study was published in the Archives of Rehabilitation Research and Clinical Translation reviewing measurable cognitive differences in MMA fighters that lost via chokehold compared to those that lost via KO/TKO and a control group that lost by neither.
In the study, titled Mixed Martial Arts: Comparing the King-Devick and Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 5 in knockouts, technical knockouts and choke holds, the authors conducted sideline concussion assessments of 140 MMA athletes before and after their bouts.
They categorized the bouts by “traumatic events” meaning KO or TKO, “perfusion events” meaning bouts that ended by strangulation either with or without loss of consciousness, and “non-events” meaning bouts that ended with neither of the above
The results found that the sideline concussion tools (the King-Devick test and the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 5) did a reasonable job identifying fighters that lost via KO or TKO. Interestingly fighters that lost via ‘non events’ did not have any significantly different test results than fighters that lost via strangulation adding to the evidence that strangulation in combat sports is relatively safe. On this point the authors concluded “We did not find statistically significant differences in KD or SCAT5 scores in the perfusion event group compared to the traumatic event or non-event groups….MMA athletes suffering a traumatic event may have sustained a brain injury similar to a concussion, while perfusion events do not cause similar changes in KD or SCAT5 scores compared to traumatic events.”
The full abstract reads as follows:
Objective
To compare validity indices of the King-Devick (KD) test and Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 5 (SCAT5) for traumatic events in MMA, and to determine if perfusion events (alterations in consciousness as the result of choke holds) cause similar changes in KD/SCAT5 scores.
Design
A prospective cohort study in MMA fighters who completed KD and SCAT5 assessments before and after a match. Outcomes were categorized as non-event, traumatic event, or perfusion event. KD/SCAT5 changes were compared between all athletes.
Participants
One hundred forty MMA athletes (7 women, 133 men), mean age = 27.1 ± 4.9 years.
Intervention
N/A
Main outcome measures
King-Devick (KD) test and Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 5 (SCAT5)
Results
Among the 140 athletes, 19 sustained traumatic and 15 perfusion events. Testing provided sensitivities/specificities of 21.05%/93.39% (KD) and 77.78%/52.99% (SCAT5) in detecting a traumatic event. KD and SCAT5 Symptom Severity scores differed between athletes with and without traumatic events (p = .041 and .014). KD and SCAT5 Symptoms Score changes were observed between athletes with and without traumatic events (p = .023 and .042). Neither KD nor SCAT5 differed significantly between athletes with and without perfusion events.
Conclusions
The KD test provides high specificity and the SCAT5 demonstrates reasonable sensitivity when detecting a traumatic event. Of the SCAT5, symptoms-related scores may most effectively identify a traumatic event. A traumatic event may cause KD/SCAT5 changes similar to a concussion, while perfusion events did not.
Combat Sports Law 