MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2008
Year-round athletes at high risk for injury
Here's a sports story. Find students who are active in sports year-round. Their involvement likely improves their game but could put them at risk for injuries. For example, doctors are seeing an increase of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear injuries in youth. Years ago, it was believed this injury occurred only in adults. Doctors used to dismiss a child's knee pain for something else, but recent technology shows many youth knee problems are ACL tears.
Poynter's Al Tompkins quotes a
New York Times story in
Al's Morning Meeting.
The
other reason for the reported surge in A.C.L. tears, doctors speculate,
is that the best athletes are more or less constantly at risk. They
play year-round and on multiple teams with frequent games, in which the
risk of injury is higher than in practice because of the intensity of
play.
“The kids are playing at really highly competitive levels
at earlier and earlier ages,” said Dr. Mininder S. Kocher, the
associate director of the division of sports medicine at Children’s
Hospital in Boston.
Whatever the reason, the increase in diagnoses has created a new problem: what to do about the injury.
Surgery is the best option for adults, but problems arise in youth because they are still growing and the growth plate is drilled into during surgery. The
Times story features a young boy who tore his ACL and his leg was left shorter than the other a year after the surgery.
Interview an injured athlete at your school. If there isn't one, feature athletes who are in year-round sports and how or if injuries have affected their game.
Posted at 8:38:33 PM
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