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Sports Injury in Cork
What is Sports Injury?
The term, sports injury, refers to the type of injuries that typically occur during exercise or sports. While some sport injuries are a direct cause of accidents, others are due to poor training, improper or broken equipment, mechanical dysfunction or lack of stretching or warm-up before participating in activities.
Dr. Eric Kelly, treating the Irish National baseball team
Areas Harmed During Sports
Almost any area of the body can be harmed during sports but most involve the musculo-skeletal system, including the bones, muscles and tissues. The most common types of sports injuries include dislocated joints, muscles strains and sprains, tears of the ligaments and tendons that support the joints, and fractured bones, such as the vertebrae. Compartment syndrome is a sports related injury that is associated with swollen muscles that cause the nerves and blood vessels to damage surrounding muscles. Acute compartment syndrome can be caused by a fractured bone, blow of the thigh or repeated blows while chronic compartment syndrome is typically caused by an overuse of muscles, such as in long-distance running. Shin splints are associated with any type of leg pain caused by exercise with pain occurring on the front of the lower leg, foot, ankle and calf muscles.
Acute or Chronic Sports Injury
While some types of sports injuries only occur once or twice (an acute sports injury), others occur on a regular basis (a chronic sports injury). Acute injuries occur suddenly during an exercise or sports activity. They usually include more common injuries, such as a sprained ankle, fractured hand or strained back. Signs of an acute sports injury may include swelling, sudden pain, tenderness, weakness, visible break of a bone of dislocation or inability to move or place weight on a joint. A chronic sports injury is one caused by the overuse of a certain area of the body, muscle or joint. This can be caused by playing a sport for a long period of time. Signs of a chronic sports injury include swelling or dull ache or pain when at rest or while participating in activities.
Sports Injury in Children
Children are at risk because they are sometimes unaware of safety procedures associated with the prevention of sports injuries. They also tend to over-exert themselves during physical activities. Adults are at risk because at times they don’t realize that they are not as flexible as they once were and injuries are caused from a lack of judgment.
