Management of injured athletes at the field

Abstract

Traumatic injuries of the foot and ankle occur frequently during sports competitions and represent a wide spectrum of injuries. The on-field and side-line management to injured athletes imposes high demands on the medical practitioner. A high level of knowledge about sports and discipline specify requirements regarding biomechanic principles and the resulting injuries and overuses are absolutely essential. The on-field management should follow a standardized algorithm of assessing the injured mechanism, history and physical examination. Under high time pressure, serious decisions about the following treatment referring to the individual athlete have to be taken very quickly and have to be adapted to the aggregate of the athletes' individual disorder, the physical examinations and the specific requirements of the sport.