Sports Injuries: Prevention And Treatment Options

Every year, as per world and data, about 2 million young people get sports & leisure activity related injuries out of which half a million meet doctors & half of these get hospitalized for the same. The common most amongst these are injuries sustained in Gymnasium followed by basketball, football & racquet sports. More & more people are playing more aggressively along all age groups in the country as well. This makes it important for everyone to understand the basics of these injuries, prevention & management. In the senior population, the scale of these injuries happens between the ages of 50 – 56 years and interestingly contact Sports. There is an equal incidence of overuse& acute injuries. Regarding gym based injuries, prevention involves being realistic about one’s age, fitness level & body type prior to commencing training. Rehydration and keeping fair hydration during a workout is important. A combination of water and an electrolyte drink like ‘nimpupani’ is a great combination. Nutrition with basic carbohydrate before and after a high protein snack after workout is important. Warm up with dynamic stretches and cool down is important as well. Senior members must strive harder to work on core and balance training. Cross training is important to prevent excuse injuries. Remember inconsistency is the key, new techniques & exercise programs just to beat the boredom is not advisable. Common injuries involve much pulls & strains, ankle sprains, tendonitis, knee cap & shoulder blade dyskinesia, muscle rapture around the mid back & flanks If soreness lasts beyond 3-4 days meet a doctor.

Running is another favorite exercise. Increase stride & pace slowly, do not indulge in binge and terrain running without conditioning. Make sure you understand your hind and midfort mechanics before blindly buying shoes. It helps sometimes to wave completely new restrictive footwear. A badly aligned foot causes stress fractures, runners knee, ITB syndrome & early wear out of the knee along clicking or snapping hip. Basketball is another sport with increasing popularity, injuries to fingers & wrists are common and need the protectors of sleeves & splints where playing. Females have a higher incidence of serious knee injuries in this sport that might need surgical interventions. Amongst other sports football& hockey too have certain peculiar injuries, rupture of heel chord, ligaments of the knee joints, fractures around the elbow and shoulder dislocations are common, paying attentions to the ball and regularly training in the gym will help prevent both acute and overuse injuries.

Racquet sports such as tennis, squash and badminton particularly injure the upper limbs & frank muscles of the torso. Paying attention to racquet grip, gut tension, upper & lower body strechability, technique of service and pick up with drop shoulder can help prevent injuries.

Golfing interestingly has a very high incidence of lower back injuries including ruptured lumbar Disc. Also driving leads to shoulder impingement and hence persistent pain behind shoulder and along the upper arm. Fitness, here is the key. Players must spend time to do warm up and stretches before the game and between the shots.

Sports surgery has come a long way now laying stress on minimally invasive (key-hole) techniques that allow sport hospitalization and early return to activities and sports. Understanding the mechanics is integral to planning treatment and non-adherence leads to treatment failure. Surgery for knee, ankle, foot, hip, shoulder, wrist and elbow are being routinely done and rehabilitation with dedicated sports physiotherapists have produced superlative results.