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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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. It can be visualized as trying to break apart a wet tree branch. While its integrity may be disrupted, it never quite snaps in half. A stress fracture usually develops over a period of time after accumulation and absorption of a series of externally applied stresses. For those afflicted, it first presents with local pain (pain directly in the area of the stress fracture); increased discomfort when ambulating or using the affected bone and it feels much better when resting. X-rays usually identify these approximately two weeks after they occur. An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) can identify it much sooner. Another tool to identify a stress fracture is a bone scan. This special test is very good in assessing injuries to bone. 

Treatment is pretty straightforward; the child must refrain from weight bearing sporting activities for about 6-8 weeks. Non-weight bearing sporting activities such as swimming and riding a stationary bicycle are indicated and recommended. Depending upon where the stress fracture is located and the extent of the stress fracture, your physician may allow you to bear some weight on the affected limb while it is healing. 

Sometimes, stress fractures recur. In this instance, further diagnostic evaluations are required. The first question is whether or not there was adequate healing of the first stress fracture. If the child did not follow through with reduction of weight bearing, healing may be delayed. Perhaps the child does not consume adequate calcium and Vitamin D. Two to three glasses of milk/day will certainly help this cause. Another possible etiology for recurrent stress fractures is biomechanical error. When the foot strikes the ground below, some people do not absorb the forces exerted onto the body by the ground very well. For instance, the stress load applied to the foot as it strikes the ground during ambulation must be absorbed into the foot. In some, these forces are excessive and these stress loads lead to stress fractures. 
 
   
 

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