Device to Prevent Athletes' Brain Injury Wins FDA Nod
The Q-Collar is a compressive device that fits around the sides and back of the neck. The idea is to squeeze the jugular veins in such a way as to produce a temporary increase in intracranial blood volume which expands expansion the venous structures within the skull that hold the brain in a more stable state that is less vulnerable to "sloshing" inside the skull as a result of impacts. The FDA based the authorization on multiple studies, including one conducted with a high school team that included 284 participants age 13 and older where 73% of the no-collar control group showed white-matter alterations versus 23% of the players who wore the collar.