How To Manage A Head Injury

Contact sports can be fun and rewarding.  But, if your child participates in a contact sport, he or she does run the risk of suffering a mild traumatic brain injury, or concussion. In fact, 20 percent of all high school football players suffer brain injuries each season!

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What is the best way to slide in baseball and softball?

Baseball and softball are two of the most popular sports in America and in the world. While baseball is known as “America’s national pastime,” softball is actually the top recreational sport in this country (with over 40 million participants yearly). Although both are considered non-contact sports, there is one physically jarring aspect of the game that accounts for a significant number of injuries: sliding into a base.

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Back Care for the Athlete

Tips to save your back while weight lifting:

What are the most common factors that lead to a back injury? 

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Strains and Sprains

Injuries will happen...there is no escaping it.

Injuries will cause pain...there is no escaping it

Injuries will lead to debility...there is no escaping it.

But what should one do, when injured?

 

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Overuse Injuries, the #1 Culprit in Injury

Not unlike their adult counterparts, injuries in kids are of many varieties and degrees.
While many are due to direct blows, such as falling from a bicycle and others are due to indirect causes such as a knee-twisting injury while running on a soccer field, the most common one I see today is due to overuse.

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My Aching Shoulder

Similar to elbow injuries, the most common mechanism of injury to the shoulder is overuse. Specifically, it is most often injured when the upper limb ranges excessively in an “over the head” motion. 

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What is Causing that Hip Pain?

Identifying the etiology for hip pain in a child can be tricky. The reason, hip pathology often presents as knee pain.

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What is a Stress Fracture?

A significant extreme of an overuse injury is a stress fracture. This too is a normal reaction to an abnormal stress placed upon a bone. While it is classified as a fracture, it is not the typical, broken bone fracture many of us envision. Rather, it is a fracture of a portion of a bone and there is no displacement of the bone. 

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Elbow Injuries

Injuries of the elbow are not rare in throwing sports. In particular, injuries to the inner aspect (the side that your pinky finger is on) of the elbow are rather common in young throwers.

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Back and Neck Pain  

While back pain will likely afflict all of us at some time during our lives, it is not as universal in the younger population. Fortunately, most low back and neck pain that kids complain about is muscular and likely to resolve in one to two weeks. 

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Oh My Aching Knee

In youth sports, the incidence and prevalence of knee injuries continues to rise. In fact, in parallel to adults, knee pain may soon become the #1 reason young patients visit my office

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My Sprained Ankle

Still the #1 injury in kids, ankle sprains commonly occur during sports. The ankle “twists,” (usually inward) and the bottom of the foot faces the other ankle. Pain occurs rather immediately

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Back Care for the Athlete
Tips to save your back while weight lifting:
What are the most common factors that lead to a back injury? 

Natural aging or “drying out” of the shock absorbing discs and soft tissue structures in the spine.

Poor posture causing unnecessary stress on the discs.

Trauma from a fall, lifting injury, or accident. If one is properly instructed on all of the “Do’s and Don’ts” most back injuries can be prevented. 
Posture is very important. Try and always keep your center of gravity in the center of your spine. The easiest way to do this is to imagine you are hanging from a string at the top of your head.
Keep your back straight when bending forward and use mostly your legs when picking up a weight.

Fact: the most common way a young person may herniate a disc is by bending forward at the waist to pick up an object while slightly rotating the torso
For added support, when lifting a heavy object, contract your abdominal and back muscles. Never hold your breath. For example, when bench pressing, slowly exhale when raising the weight and slowly inhale when lowering.
Try to avoid loading your spine.

Fact: the pressure inside your disc is much higher when sitting than when standing and is the lowest when lying on your back with your knees bent.

Avoid: a seated position when lifting a weight over the head (military press, seated dumb bell shoulder press, smith machine in upright seated position). This increases disc pressure significantly.

For added support, when picking up a weight, contract abdominal and back muscles. 
What do you do if you injure your back? Rest, take NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) like advil, aleve, ibuprofen, motrin, naprosyn for 2-3 days after meals (if not medically contraindicated)

When should you seek medical attention? 
-If pain persists for 5 or more days
-Weakness in arms or legs
-Bowel or Bladder control problems
-Numbness on the inner buttock areas


Alexander J. Lee MD
Spine Institute
Beth Israel Medical Center
New York, NY
 
   
 

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