Facial Fractures

BackgroundFacial fractures occur for a variety of reasons related to sports participation: contact between players (eg, a head, fist, elbow); contact with equipment (eg, balls, pucks, handlebars); or contact with the environment, obstacles, or a playing surface (eg, wrestling mat, gymnastic equipment, goalposts, trees). Direct body contact accounts for the majority of sports-related injuries, and the most commonly associated soft tissue injuries...

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Athletic Foot Injuries

BackgroundAthletic foot injuries can be difficult to properly diagnose and treat. Bearing the weight of the entire body, the foot is under tremendous stress. In many sports, the foot absorbs tremendous shearing and loading forces, sometimes reaching over 20 times the person's body weight. Physicians who treat these disorders must have a good understanding of the anatomy and kinesiology of the foot.See the following images.Select bones of the foot...

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Calcaneofibular Ligament Injury

BackgroundAnkle injuries are among the most common injuries that present to physician offices and emergency departments (EDs) because the ankle is the most frequently injured joint in the body.[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] Ankle injuries are a major cause of time loss from work or other daily activities and constitute up to 25% of all time-loss injuries from running and jumping sports.[9, 10] Sprains account for 85% of ankle injuries and, of these sprains,...

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Talofibular Ligament Injury

BackgroundLigamentous injuries of the ankle are common among athletes.[1, 2] Inversion injuries of the ankle account for 40% of all athletic injuries. The anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL) and the calcaneofibular ligament (CFL) are sequentially the most commonly injured ligaments when a plantar-flexed foot is forcefully inverted. The posterior talofibular ligament (PTFL) is rarely injured, except in association with a complete dislocation of the...

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Femoral Neck Fracture

BackgroundThe number of individuals participating in athletic activities is continually increasing, whether these individuals are highly competitive athletes or weekend sports enthusiasts.[1, 2] Stress fractures of the femoral neck are uncommon injuries (see image depicted below). In general, these injuries occur in 2 distinct populations, (1) young, active individuals with unaccustomed strenuous activity or changes in activity, such as runners or...

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Groin Injury

Introduction and FrequencyGroin injuries are commonly encountered by physicians and clinicians who treat athletes of all ages at all levels of competition. Groin injuries are particularly common in activities in which forceful adduction of the hip occurs; examples include skating, ice hockey, swimming, and soccer. In fact, as many as 10% of ice hockey–related injuries and 5% of soccer-related injuries are groin injuries.[1, 2] This article focuses...

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Contusions

BackgroundMuscle contusion indicates a direct, blunt, compressive force to a muscle. Contusions are one of the most common sports-related injuries.[1, 2, 3] The severity of contusions ranges from simple skin contusions to muscle and bone contusions to internal organ contusions.Although all tissue and organ contusions can result from traumatic sports injury, this article focuses on muscle contusions. Contusions of internal organs and bone contusions...

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