sports injury – Seite 5

sports and youth sports injury concussion

Concussion in sports in children and adolescents – to play or not to play?

A lot has been published on the topic concussion in sports during the last years, conscience was sharpened, much was structured and defined more precisely, help tools were developed and rules changed. This article summarizes the fifth edition of the recently published guidelines of the “International Consensus Conference on Concussion in Sport”. In addition, new findings regarding gender differences and recovery will be presented, as well as the modified “return-to-sport” and the novel “return-to-school” protocols.

sports and youth sports injury

Management of youth athletic injuries in alpine skiing

The popularity of alpine skiing is growing among young athletes. However, this development also carries the risk of early health problems such as traumatic and overuse injuries. To support a long-term beneficial effect of an early sport specialization, the amount of appropriate volume and intensity of training need to be investigated. As a basis for a prospective and reliable data collection, we developed a training and injury database to repeatedly record the occurrence of traumatic injuries and overuse injuries. Study participants were 82 young talented alpine skiers aged between 9 and 14 years.

sports and youth growth overuse sports injury

Overview of overuse injuries

Ideally, the musculosceletal system and it’s components maintain a biologic balance during growth in order to compensate and/or adapt to intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Otherwise, the risk of acute or overuse injuries is increasing. The growth cartilage at the level of the growth plates or apophyses as well as the spine is highly vulnerable to overuse injuries, especially during the pubertal growth spurt. The diagnosis of an overuse injury is often delayed due to the undulant clinical manifestation and the treatment can be extensive and long-lasting, sometimes leading to an early cessation of sports activities.

sports injury ligament

Discovery of the anterolateral ligament of the knee: 2017 update

In 2013, the publication of Steven Claes [1] on the anterolateral ligament (ALL) in the “Journal of Anatomy” caused an important media buzz, highlighting a “new knee ligament”. The problem for the surgeons in 2017 is therefore whether this ALL is really a ligamentous structure in its own right, if it has a role in the rotatory control of the knee and especially if it must be restored during a reconstruction of the ACL.

exercise is medicine sports and youth sports injury knee ligament

Evidence for the management of anterior cruciate ligament rupture in children and adolescents

ACL injuries in children and adolescents have increased substantially in recent years. Nevertheless, treatment algorithms are domiated by predjudice more than by evidence, eventhough the scientific basis, summarized in this paper, is sound. The likelihood of an ACL tear in a traumatic hemarthros, even without contact, is 52%. More than half of the cases show concurrent injuries. Methods and criteria for success of conservative treatment are published in detail, however, surgical treatment produces a better clinical outcome in most cases. Various surgical techniques exist, and age appropriate treatment can elimate the risk of a growth disturbance and restore the normal function of the knee.

exercise is medicine sports radiology pain spine

Physical activity and chronic low back pain

Non-specific chronic low back pain is a multifactorial pathology with a significant impact on quality of life. Physical activity is a major axis of treatment to improve pain and functional capacity through structured exercises, but also to fight against physical deconditioning. It is therefore advised to perform leisure time physical activity regularly and in an adapted way. There is no contraindication to practice sports activities but they should be performed with special attention not to increase the symptoms. This article aims to evaluate the effects of different types of physical activity in chronic low back pain to help the practitioner to advise at best his patients and prescribe appropriate physical activity, source of pleasure and health benefits.

sports injury foot & ankle sports physiotherapy muscle

Foot core strengthening: relevance in injury prevention and rehabilitation for runners

The human foot is a flexible structure characterized by a pronounced medial longitudinal arch (MLA) that compresses and recoils during running. That process is actively driven by the intrinsic foot muscles and requires a proper stability of the MLA. This introduces the concept of foot core stability. Because the intrinsic foot muscles are often neglected by clinicians and researchers, the purpose of this article is to provide some guidelines for incorporating foot core training in prevention or rehabilitation programmes for runners.

sports injury shoulder & elbow tendon sports physiotherapy

Tennis and golf elbow

“Tennis and golfer’s elbow” are common pathologies due to overload of forearm extensors and flexors, and actually occur mostly outside tennis and golf sports. Several differential diagnoses of medial and lateral epicondylitis have to be excluded as there are a number of other conditions with similar clinical symptoms. The high rate of spontaneous recovery has to be considered in treatment. Evidence based conservative treatment comprises excentric physiotherapy, local injections, and physical methods. Surgery is reserved for patients with persistence of symptoms for more than one year despite non-surgical treatment.

sports injury knee tendon sports physiotherapy

Tendon problems around the knee

The knee joint is affected in up to 30% of all sport injuries. A minor precentage of it are tendon injuries. For acute tendon injuries, quadriceps tendon rupture and patellar tendon rupture are most frequent. Beside that, ruptures of distal hamstring tendons or the popliteus tendon may occur. For chronic tendon injuries in sports, the jumpers knee and the runners knee are most frequent. Also insertional enthesopathy of the quadriceps tendon, of the iliotibial band, of the hamstring tendons may occur, furthermore a tendinitis or bursitis at the pes anserinus. These injuries are explained in this article focussing on symptoms, diagnostics and therapy.

sports injury foot & ankle tendon sports physiotherapy

Rare tendon pathologies at the foot level

While lesions of the achilles tendon and posterior tibial tendon are common and well known, lesions of other ankle bridging tendons are rare and literature is sparse. However, many of these lesions are equally relevant in terms of maintaining the complex functionality of the foot. Such pathologies include tendinitis, tenosynovitis as well as partial and complete tears. If the continuity of the affected tendon is maintained, conservative treatment is appropriate. In cases of ruptures, operative therapy is often needed. Depending on the defect size and retraction of the tendon, auto- or allograft have to be used.