Athletic Injury

Athletic injury is an unavoidable risk associated not only with all professional sports, but with game play in general. Accidental collisions or awkward falls can severely damage an athlete's body and in some cases the athletic injury could be permanent or in rare cases even fatal. These major injuries of professional athletes are known as traumatic injuries. There is also athletic injury caused by the overuse of a body part rather than a direct collision and these are called overuse injuries. Runner's knee is a common situation in track and field, and tennis elbow is likewise associated with tennis – these conditions are due to repetitive isolated stress to a person's body part. For this reason, most professional sports teams have a staff of therapists who have very close relationships with medical practitioners. Traumatic athletic injuries occur often in football, rugby, soccer and wrestling because of the high collision nature of the sports.

Types Of Athletic Injury

Bruises are common in sports and happen when there is damage to small blood vessels which causes bleeding within the tissues. Another common problem is muscle strain, in which there is small tear of fibers and a ligament sprain, which is a tear of ligament tissue. The body's response to an athletic injury takes place within a five day period and is known as inflammation. After the cells that make up soft tissue are damaged, these cells release chemicals that create the inflammatory response. Small blood vessels are opened and produce bleeding within the body tissue. A small blood clot is then formed to stop the bleeding and release special cells called fibroblasts which will begin laying down scar tissue. In treatment of athletic injury, it is important for the physiotherapist to minimize the inflammation phase, as too much of an inflammatory response may mean a longer healing process. Inflammation is physically observed by experiencing pain, swelling, heat, redness and perhaps a loss of function or effectiveness.

The most common injuries among college athletes include bruising, muscle strains, ligament sprains, athletic knee injuries and athlete spinal cord injury. Athletes with spinal cord injuries face a major challenge, since athletes with spinal cord injury run the risk of severe cervical spine injury. There are approximately 10,000 spinal cord injuries cases in athletes throughout the United States every year. Spinal cord injuries are a major concern to athletes, though the most common athletic injuries involve the limbs. There have also been reported serious athletic head injuries, which can result in death.

Athlete Injury Treatment And Response

Treatment in gruesome athletic injury involves protection (protecting the wound against further damage), rest, ice, compression (which resolves swelling by compressing the area, such as with a cast or knee brace) and elevation (which also prevents excessive swelling resulting from the effect of gravity). While the psychological response to athletic injury may be for the player to push him or herself, the doctor must emphasize long term health over short term gain. This puts a great deal of responsibility on coaches, trainers and doctors, who want to see the team win, but would prefer for the player to keep on playing at his full capacity for years to come.