There are a wide range of injuries in adolescents during sports activities Incidence of sports injuries are more in boys than girls . 66,97% -boys & 32.88% girls.
Common injuries include :
football (31%) – fractures
handball (9%)
sports during school (8.77%).
Ski injuries led to knee problems , ligament tears
Spine injuries were observed most often during horse riding
Head injuries were seen in bicycle accidents
The lower extremity was involved in 68.71% of the cases.
Knee problems were seen in 30% of the patients;
3% spine and 2% head injuries.
distortions (35.34%) and ligament tears (18.76%)
9,00% of all injuries were fractures
Head injuries were seen in male patients much more often then in female patients (21:1).
A large number of athletes sustain musculoskeletal injuries, sometimes serious.
Commotio Cordis – light- medium blow on chest, triggers irregular heart beats which is resistant to treatment leading to death
Common sites for sports injury are proximal humeral injury as in baseball, gymnasts wrists, avulsion , injury of the pelvis.
Injuries occur to the growth centers, mostly fractures, stress fractures, chronic injuries, mal alignment problems, epiphysis injuries which leads to shortening and angular deformities due to premature fusion of epiphysis due to compression injury.
Athletes are more prone for injuries especially if they may have a rough coaches , pushy parents and intense motivation to win, so they push beyond limits and ignore injuries which get aggravated.
Bone injuries better than muscle injuries as it can be seen on XRay, heal with new bone formation where as muscles and tendon injuries heal with fibrosis ( scar tissue) and take longer to heal.
It is imperative to provide preventive medical check-ups, to monitor the sport-specific needs for each individual sports, to observe the training skills as well as physical fitness needed and to evaluation coaches education. Exercise in a fitness centre can be done before 18 yrs of age only under medical supervision of adolescent physician trained in exercise protocols. Weight training can be done only with terrabands and not with free weights or machine weights as in multigym as it may cause epiphyseal damage (damage to growth plates of bones) and muscle injuries leading to stunting of final height.
