HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS

High School Athletics

High School Athletics

Outline

Thesis statement

Introduction

Discussion

The injuries

Age (school grade)

Aggressive behavior

Epidemiology and prevention of injury in youth sport

Causal structures for youth sports injury

The physician's function in counseling, stopping, and healing sports injuries

IV. Conclusion

Thesis statement

The number of high school athletics participating in sport is increasing and in the US is estimated at 35 million, many of whom participate competitively. Within that group are an increasing number who undergo intensive training from an early age. Sports injuries occur in both the intensively trained and the child playing for simple enjoyment.

Introduction

Epidemiological investigations have shown an incidence of injury in schoolchildren of between 3 and 11%. No games is immune from injury and the advantages of exercise far outweigh the risks. Most sporting injuries in children are minor and do not lead to long period disability (Swanson, 1991).

There is no standard method of classifying sports injuries which makes it tough to contrast the risks between individual sports. The injuries seen in any individual society or hospital will be determined by national or local sporting interest, with high injury rates in soccer, American football, gymnastics, riding and skiing being fairly consistent.

Catastrophic injury, in which there is permanent neurological damage, is fortunately rare and has been reduced with the introduction of rule changes in many games. In Britain there are about 700 serious spinal injuries each year, of which 17% are sports related. Two percent of these occur in rugby, a figure that also includes adults. Serious eye injury from missile trauma has been reduced in ice hockey by the introduction of compulsory face masks. These studies emphasise the importance of how a detailed analysis of sporting injuries, both serious and simple, can reduce the numbers by changing rules, the introduction of safety devices or the improvement of equipment. Death from sporting injuries in children is usually the result of head or cervical spine injury sustained in falls or contact sport. Sudden death 'commotio cordis' may also occur from cardiac arrest from blunt chest trauma and is probably due to induced ventricular asystole or fibrillation, triggered by the sudden impact(Winfield, 1992).

Discussion

The injuries

These can be divided into acute trauma, including sprains and fractures and overuse injuries. The Salter Harris classification of fractures applies to those injuries that are sustained acutely during sporting activity and needs no further discussion. The acute fractures are classified similarly to those sustained in accidental trauma in children. Long term disability is rare and is related mainly to growth plate injuries with premature fusion or tethering resulting in limb length discrepancy or uneven growth of one side of a bone. Imaging of the growth plate by magnetic resonance (MR) is the most sensitive method of identifying these complications(Rutter, 1977). Injuries more commonly thought of as sports related injuries can be classified as stress fractures, instability lesions, apophyseal avulsion injury, chondral and osteochondral lesions and supple tissue injury of muscles and tendons. Many of these lesions are the result of overuse when insufficient time is allowed for ...