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Pay Attention To High School Sports Injuries
Category: Youth & Sports
Sep 16, 2006
With the fall sports season getting under way, it's a perfect opportunity to take a minute to talk about high school sports injuries -- and what you should know if your kid does get injured.
Back in my day, your coach told you to "strap an aspirin to it and get back into the game!" Although those days are essentially over, there seems to be an increasing emphasis on sports and our kids. Although this is generally a good thing, it does have some drawbacks. Our society puts a lot of pressure on athletes to "win at all costs," and it seems that every parent thinks that their little "Billy" or "Jenny" is going to "make it big" in collegiate or professional sports. As a result, kids are playing harder, they're in more travel leagues, they're not getting the rest they need, and they are often pressured to ignore injuries.
Professional and college-level athletes certainly get a ton of media attention and the so-called "sophisticated" medical care for their sports injuries, but what about high school athletes? Unfortunately, the needs of high school athletes often get relegated to the sidelines. With that being said, we're pretty lucky in our community -- we have some of the best athletic trainers in the country, and our coaches tend to be very knowledgeable when it comes to sports injuries. So let's talk a bit more about injuries in high school athletes.
SPORTS INJURIES IN TEENS DIFFER FROM ADULTS
Every year, millions of teenagers participate in high school sports. Teenage athletes get injured at about the same rate as pro athletes. But injuries that affect high school athletes are often different than those that affect adults. For instance growing athletes are prone to growth plate injuries. The bone structure of most adolescents is not mature -- this means that there are areas of growing tissue (growth plates) near the end of long bones. These areas injure more easily than tendons and ligaments. Thus, sports activities that could cause a sprain in an adult could cause a more serious injury in a high school athlete. Growth plate injuries happen most often in contact sports like football or basketball and overuse sports like gymnastics or baseball.
Little Leaguer's Elbow and Osgood-Shlatter Disease (painful bump in the front of the knee) are very common overuse injuries that we see in our kids as the fall sports get under way.
High school athletes are also quite prone to other injuries as well. ACL injuries and dislocating knee caps are especially common in our female athletes. Other athletes are "blowing out" their knees or tearing their cartilages. Shoulder injuries such as shoulder dislocations, separations, and SLAP tears (a tear in the O-ring around the shoulder socket) are becoming increasingly common in our contact athletes.
Also, be aware of low back pain in young athletes. Whereas low back pain in adults is often attributed to a "strain," low back pain in kids could be related to a little stress fracture in the spine.
GET PROMPT MEDICAL ATTENTION
All sports injuries and complaints from young athletes need attention. Remember RICE (Rest, Ice, gentle Compression and/or bracing, Elevation, and Motrin or Advil) when it comes to mild sprains and strains. Generally, young athletes are very anxious to return to sports, so if your injured child expresses concerns about returning to their sports activity, they're probably not lying. Be aware that your kid is probably really hurt, or their injury is not completely resolved. If your kid does blow out a knee, hurt a shoulder or elbow, fracture something, or sustain some other sports injury -- let us know.
Dr. Joseph Guettler is a Beaumont orthopedic surgeon who specializes in sports medicine. His practice, Performance Orthopedics, is located in Bingham Farms.