Sports injuries

Abstract

Sports injuries are commonly encountered in pediatric patients. It is estimated that over four million sports or recreational injuries occur in children and young adults each year in the United States. These include elbow, shoulder, and hip disorders, back pain, and concussions, among others. In fact, it has been suggested that children are more susceptible to injury than adults due to their decreased coordination, open physes, and growing cartilage. Recent results in the literature report that elbow pain is seen in 50-70 % of adolescent baseball players yearly, possibly due to skeletal immaturity and poor pitching mechanics. Further, children are often involved in several athletic activities as well as repetitive types of activity. It has been suggested that fatigue or stress-related injuries may be more common in 6-18-year-old children than acute injuries. Proper technique, core strengthening, neuromuscular conditioning, and appropriate time for rest can be helpful protective measures. For example, warm-up and sport-specific agility exercises are being developed to decrease the incidence of knee injuries, particularly in young female athletes. It has been recommended that at least 2 h of recovery occur between moderate to vigorous intensity training sessions and that the importance of rest be emphasized. Although these are important preventative measures aimed at decreasing the risk of sports-related injury in pediatric patients, early and accurate diagnosis of injury is key to ensure appropriate therapy. Imaging with nuclear medicine techniques plays a central role in the diagnosis of sports-related injury in this patient population.