Athletic Injury

Being an athlete can be fun as well as challenging, whether you're a high school athlete, college athlete or a professional athlete. One of the major problems that athletes may encounter in their career is athletic injuries. For an athlete, injury is almost guaranteed at some point in their career. The most common athletic injuries are tendonitis, bursitis, hernias and sprains. These usually simple injuries can be taken care of with rest, exercise and often physical therapy. More serious conditions that require surgery such as a torn ACL, torn rotator cuff or concussions are some of the major injuries of professional athletes.

One type of athletic injury worth mentioning on its own is athlete spinal cord injury. The majority of spinal cord injuries in athletes are not serious or do not result in permanent impairment. However, there are enough of them that the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) has insisted on implementing a task force to train all members of the athletic organization, as well as players, on the prehospital first aid for athletes with spinal cord injury. The type of medical treatment the athletes with spinal cord injuries receive immediately after the injury can make all the difference in their recuperation period. The removal of the helmets such as worn in football or hockey plays a big part in the pre-hospital treatment for spinal cord injuries. Cases of athletes that had their helmets removed immediately showed a negative result. Unless the facemask needs to be removed to administer CPR, it was proven that leaving the helmet and shoulder pads on helped support the head, neck and shoulder area.

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Athletic knee injuries are also very common with athletes. Often a knee brace is worn for prevention and treatment of knee injuries. The knee brace helps to control and support the motion of the knee. A very simple knee injury may become serious or lifelong if it doesn't receive the proper care and treatment immediately after the injury. For that matter, many what would be simple athletic injuries turn into a gruesome athletic injury due to lack of proper medical attention.

In addition to the physical part of injuries, there is also the psychological response to athletic injury. If the athlete has a negative feeling about his injury, it can delay the recuperation period as the mind and body work together. There are many reported serious athletic head injuries every year in sports, with concussions being the most reported. There are many common injuries among college athletes such as knee injuries, elbow injuries, head injuries and sprains and strains of different ligaments.