Sports Injuries
Sports injuries are injuries that occur in athletic activities or exercising. In the United States there are about 30 million teenagers and children alone that participate in some form of organized sport. About 3 million avid sports competitors 14 years of age and under experience sports injuries annually, which causes some loss of time of participation in the sport. The leading cause of death involving sports-related injuries, although rare, is brain injuries. When injured the two main systems affected are the nervous and vascular systems. The origins in the body where numbness and tingling occurs upon sports injuries are usually the first signs of the body telling you that the body was impacted.
Sports medicine is a multi-disciplinary branch of medical science, which aims to deliver positive health to a sports-person. The 3 main thrust areas of Sports medicine are :
Sports Injury management and rehabilitation.
Injury prevention in sport.
Improvement of physical fitness and performance.
Poor physical condition of the athlete
(excess fat, poor flexibility, low strength)
Overuse syndrome (over training)
Extrinsic causes (poor shoes, surfaces)
What First Aid can be provided on the field ?
R.I.C.E. R for Rest, I for Ice, C for Compression, E for Elevation.
Usually these treatments are undertaken by the orthopedic surgeon and a physiotherapist. With the advent of techniques like arthroscopy and laser, sports injuries can be treated and rehabilitated in quick time. Arthroscopic surgery has revolutionarised sports injury management. Injuries to the joint structures like cartilages, ligaments and even bone can be treated with arthroscopic surgery. The patient can return to sports in quick time.
Physiotherapy : After injury or arthroscopic surgery the athlete is rehabilitated to full function by physiotherapy. The methods used in physiotherapy are laser, ultra sound waves, diathermy, electrical stimulation and active and passive exercises.