A football player sustains a concussion. If immediate sideline assessments fail to detect the neurometabolic cascade indicative of an energy crisis, which consequence follows?

💡 Explanation

Failure to detect the early neurometabolic cascade, and subsequent energy crisis, leads to a prolonged neuronal vulnerability state because ionic homeostasis dysregulation occurs, triggering excitotoxicity and mitochondrial dysfunction. Therefore, neurons remain susceptible to secondary injury, rather than quickly recovering; this is amplified rather than contained.

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