Peter Kriz, MD

Concussion Clinic

Questions and answers on youth sports and concussion risk with Dr. Peter Kriz

Dr. Peter Kriz, chief of primary care sports medicine at University Orthopedics and assistant team physician for Brown University Athletics, answered a set of questions on the risks of concussions in youth sports in general and Pop Warner (football) in particular. Please click here to read the complete article.

Knocked out: Concussion study questions involvement of young teens in collision sports The study by a Providence doctor ran from 2012 to 2015 and involved 145 patients ages 13 to 18.

Dr. Peter Kriz featured in Providence Journal article, please click here to read the complete article. Excerpt below.

...It would typically involve a 14-year-old hockey player who was talented enough to make the varsity squad but was still going through puberty. "He had peach fuzz and weighed 140 pounds soaking wet," said Kriz. "He was going in to the corner to dig out a puck."

That's when a larger, usually fully developed defender came swooping in to deliver a hit so jarring it injured the child's brain, requiring time out of school and sport to heal.

"It was like a broken record," said Kriz, who became so concerned about the pattern that in 2012 he launched a study with colleagues in Massachusetts to collect data on concussions in male and female hockey players. He did the research as a sports medicine physician and researcher with Hasbro Children’s Hospital... Read more here.

Concussion injury potential offsets benefit of ‘playing up’ in youth hockey, study argues

Dr. Peter Kriz featured in "The Globe and Mail" article by WENCY LEUNG, click here to read the complete article.

Excerpt from article: ...Lead author Dr. Peter Kriz, of the department of orthopedics at Rhode Island Hospital, explains that talented young athletes are often encouraged to “play up,” or to play at a higher level with older, more advanced players, to give them opportunity to develop skills. In some circumstances, 14-year-olds may be grouped with players aged 18 and under, he says.

“The potential injury risk, specifically with concussion, probably outweighs the benefits of developing skill,” says Kriz, a sports-medicine physician affiliated with Brown University. “What we see is sometimes those really skilled, younger, undersized players accrue a few injuries, and then, unfortunately, they can’t really sustain contact. They get symptomatic and in some cases they have to leave the sport.” Read more here.