Athletic injuries

[MHDNURSE]

I am curious, for those of you in middle or high schools, or with your own children in that age range, what are the most frequent sports injuries you are seeing and for which sports? Any specific sports you think have significantly higher injuries?

I am in a K-2 school, and have seen a couple of concussions from tackle football. My own kids have thankfully not gotten injured (yet)- 12 year old son does LAX, Basketball, and Baseball. 10 year old daughter does competitive cheer.

[Eleven011]

All sports have their share of injuries, but I'd say I've seen the most serious ones in Football. Most common across the board that I've seen are concussions and foot/ankle injuries.

[MrNurse(x2), ADN]

I coach LAX and have seen concussions there. Had some serious conversations with refs about player safety. Girl's LAX is much more common. This was the biggest eye opener when I became a school nurse. Soccer, with heading, has also been a big contributor.

[GdBSN, RN]

Definitely concussions from all sports. I've had this discussion with our trainer: are concussions being better diagnosed or are they being over diagnosed?

[OldDude]

At the pedi Urgent Care I work at, for over 10 years now, the sport producing the most injuries is baseball/softball (usually associated with sliding into a base), followed by football, and then basketball and soccer. We don't play lacrosse down here. Of these sports we seldom see fractures but mostly sprains.

Cheer injuries are on the rise since it became competitive. It is likely the most dangerous sport of all, especially for the flyers, in that there is "NO" safety equipment other than, "Go ahead, I'll catch you!" "Oh sorry, are you OK?" Our daughter was on the cheer squad through youth cheer and made the 7th grade cheer squad; a flyer. Sweet Petunia had to take xanax before going to watch. She was dropped more than once and she decided not to return for 8th grade...praise the Lord. Sorry MHDNURSE

[ohiobobcat]

Last year, by far, I had the most injuries from our cheerleaders. Lots of concussions from being kicked or dropped.

Football and basketball are the next, followed closely by soccer. Mostly concussions and lower extremity injuries (ankle/knee).

Strangely, I don't see many of injuries from field hockey and ice hockey.

[dd_txrn, ASN, BSN]

Cheerleading, I agree with OD; sprains, concussions, had one girl get in the way of another girl's high kick.....

But, I've had a student get hit square in the eye from a returned tennis ball..and another student hit himself in the head with his own racket.

I'm so lucky because we have 2 full-time trainers here, so usually they've already been 'assessed' by the time they get to me and are just wanting some TLC and more ice. :)

I coach LAX and have seen concussions there. Had some serious conversations with refs about player safety. Girl's LAX is much more common. This was the biggest eye opener when I became a school nurse. Soccer, with heading, has also been a big contributor.

Yes, it is amazing to me that in girl's LAX, they are MUCH less protected than the boys, no helmets, and those balls are hard! Scary stuff.

At the pedi Urgent Care I work at, for over 10 years now, the sport producing the most injuries is baseball/softball (usually associated with sliding into a base), followed by football, and then basketball and soccer. We don't play lacrosse down here. Of these sports we seldom see fractures but mostly sprains.

Cheer injuries are on the rise since it became competitive. It is likely the most dangerous sport of all, especially for the flyers, in that there is "NO" safety equipment other than, "Go ahead, I'll catch you!" "Oh sorry, are you OK?" Our daughter was on the cheer squad through youth cheer and made the 7th grade cheer squad; a flyer. Sweet Petunia had to take xanax before going to watch. She was dropped more than once and she decided not to return for 8th grade...praise the Lord. Sorry MHDNURSE

I hear you on cheer. My daughter is tiny, but thankfully, there are even tinier girls so she is not a flyer, at least not this year. But then there is always a chance someone can land on her, which cold be just as bad I guess...

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

Hockey. We don't have a team, but a ton of students that play on the town team. So many concussions.

Also girls' soccer for some reason lately.

As for gym classes, I hate dodgeball with a passion. It is full contact sport at the HS level at my school and played on pavement.

[nursekoll, BSN, RN]

I think it's Wrestling! Probably because so many kids do it here from pewee to HS. There's no protection really! I see more concussions and fractures in football, but seems like more sprains, dislocations, and tendon injuries in wrestling. And just more injuries in general.

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

Cheerleading, I agree with OD; sprains, concussions, had one girl get in the way of another girl's high kick.....

But, I've had a student get hit square in the eye from a returned tennis ball..and another student hit himself in the head with his own racket.

I'm so lucky because we have 2 full-time trainers here, so usually they've already been 'assessed' by the time they get to me and are just wanting some TLC and more ice. :)

If your trainers are ATC certified (the vast majority will be), they'll be far better at evaluating sports injury than you will likely ever be. Their evaluations are often sufficiently detailed enough for the "team physician" to determine if a given injured athlete needs to be seen, if at all, by that physician. This isn't meant to make you look bad, it's just that we don't get the specialized education they have. These people are also trained along the medical model and therefore they're comfortable speaking with the "team physician" using a common language. You might also be surprised to see how many athletic injuries they do see, treat, and release that you never see. I would be quite surprised if your trainers don't have a very good understanding of the rate of injury seen in each sport, which sport at your school has the highest injury rate, and which injuries are the most commonly seen in each individual sport.

How do I know this? My first degree is in Sports Med and I worked for 2.5 years as an assistant athletic trainer at a Div. III college. Along the way I became very familiar with just about every high school sport. Yes, that does mean right down to the kinematics involved in each sport, and how injuries occur due to each sport's demands.

Now then, one of the drawbacks of the trainer's education is that they're not well educated about non-athletic problems. They should be able to pick up on those and know to send athletes with non-athletic medical issues to the nurse because that's out of their depth and scope of knowledge.