Sports Injuries & Conditions
Sports injuries occur during exercise or while participating in a sporting activity. Sports injuries can result in children, adolescents, and adults. Sports injuries range from minor to mild stiffness, soreness, and muscular pain to more moderate and severe injuries from torn ligaments and tendons to fractures.
At Aptiva Health, we offer same-day and walk-in appointments for sports injuries and conditions to evaluate, diagnose, and make the appropriate referral for additional treatment based upon your specific sports injury or condition. We treat these conditions in our Sports Medicine, General Medicine, Orthopedics, Pain Management, and Physical Therapy departments.
Sports Injuries & Conditions
Different sports injuries and conditions produce different symptoms and complications. Below is a list of general sports injuries and conditions:
Concussions. The most common athletic head injury is a concussion - an injury to the brain caused by a blow to the head, a collision, or violent shaking. A concussion is considered a traumatic brain injury and impacts cognitive functioning. Repeated concussions can cause long-term problems with memory and executive function. At Aptiva Health, we utilize ImPACT neuropsychological testing to effectively diagnose and treat concussions.
Sprains. Overstretching or tearing the ligaments results in a sprain. Ligaments are pieces of tissue that connect two bones to one another in a joint.
Strains. Overstretching or tearing muscles or tendons results in a sprain. Tendons are thick, fibrous cords of tissue that connect bone to muscle. Strains are commonly mistaken for sprains.
Swollen muscles. Swelling is a natural reaction to an injury. Swollen muscles may also be painful and weak.
Achilles tendon rupture. The Achilles tendon is a thin, powerful tendon at the back of your ankle. During sports, this tendon can break or rupture. When it does, you may experience sudden, severe pain and difficulty walking.
Fractures. Bone fractures are also known as broken bones.
Dislocations. Sports injuries may dislocate a bone in your body. When that happens, a bone is forced out of its socket. This can be painful and lead to swelling and weakness.
Common sports injuries by body part:
Shoulder. The most common shoulder problem is either inflammation or tearing of the rotator cuff. However, other conditions, such as a frozen shoulder or labral tear, can mimic symptoms of an injured rotator cuff and need to be considered as possible diagnoses. Four muscles join together to form the rotator cuff. The rotator cuff keeps your shoulder moving in all directions. A tear in any of these muscles can weaken the rotator cuff.
Elbow. Tendon problems around the elbow, including lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) and medial epicondylitis (golfer's elbow), are the most common sports-related problems of the elbow joint.
Wrist. Wrist fractures are among the most common broken bones in athletes. Landing from a fall onto an outstretched arm, for example, can lead to a wrist fracture that requires treatment.
Finger. Jammed fingers can describe many types of sports-related finger injuries. Fractured fingers, dislocated finger joints, and tendon ruptures (mallet and jersey fingers) are common, especially in ball sports like basketball and soccer.
Spine. Low-back muscle strains are by far the most common spinal injuries in athletes (or non-athletes). The pain is often deep and severe, leading those affected to worry that a more serious structural problem may have occurred. While less typical spine problems should be considered, lumbar strains are by far the most common of them.
Hip and groin. Groin strains or pulls have always been a common hip pain diagnosis. Many hip problems once attributed to a muscle strain, such as femoroacetabular impingement, or FAI, and labral tears, are becoming better understood, but groin strain injuries are still the most common.
Thigh. A muscle strain, pull, or tear can occur in the hamstring, quadriceps, and adductor muscles in the thigh from a variety of different sports. Hamstrings and quadriceps are particularly at risk during high-speed activities like track and field, football, basketball, and soccer. The injury occurs when the muscle is stretched beyond its limit, tearing the muscle fibers.
Knee. Any injury that interferes with how the knee joint moves could be a sports injury. It could range from an overstretch to a tear in the muscles or tissues in the knee. Beyond tendon, ligament, and cartilage injuries, anterior knee pain, also called patellofemoral pain syndrome, is a cartilage irritation on the underside of the kneecap that causes pain and grinding around it. Therapeutic exercises are almost always used as treatment.
Ankle. Ankle sprains are by far the most common injury of the ankle joint. Once an ankle sprain has occurred, repeat injuries can be common. Proper rehab after these injuries can help prevent reinjuring the ankle joint.
Foot. Plantar fasciitis involves irritation of the thick, tough tissue that creates the arch of the foot. This plantar fascia tissue can become contracted and painful, leading to difficulty stepping on the heel of the foot.
Causes & Symptoms
Sports injury symptoms can come on quickly at the point of injury or may appear gradually over the course of a few hours or days. When an athlete takes a hard fall, rolls an ankle, or gets otherwise banged up, the typical response is to shake it off and push through the pain, which can lead to longer-term problems.
Symptoms from a chronic or overuse injury tend to develop over time. However, acute flare-ups of old injuries can be common. Symptoms of a sports injury include the following.
Pain
Pain is the primary symptom of a sports injury. It is the body's signal that something is wrong and can differ based on the type of injury. The immediate onset of pain from an acute injury that does not subside should be seen by a sports physician. An example of this is rolling your ankle and not being able to put weight on it or colliding with a person or object and not being able to move your arm.
Other times, pain onset is delayed. This is particularly common in overuse injuries. A joint may feel a little tender immediately after a sport, but the pain continues to intensify over the course of hours. Tenderness when pressure is applied to the area can be an important indicator that a serious injury has occurred.
The location of the discomfort, the depth of pain, and a description of the type of pain you are experiencing can help your doctor determine the possible cause.
Swelling
Swelling is a sign of inflammation, which is your body's effort to respond to injury and initiate the healing response of the immune system. While swelling is not necessarily a bad thing, it can cause discomfort.
In the very early stages after injury, you may not notice swelling or any restriction in your ability to move. Swelling often occurs gradually as healing blood and fluid are sent to protect and heal damaged tissue or bone.
What you experience can tip your doctor off as to the type of injury you have.12 There are a few types of swelling.
Effusion: Swelling within a joint
Edema: Swelling in the soft tissues
Hematoma: Swelling due to bleeding in the soft tissue
Stiffness
While pain can be difficult to quantify, mobility can often be measured by checking your range of motion. This is especially true in injuries to the limb, because you can compare the injured joint to its opposite healthy one.
A limited range of motion can be a clear indication of the severity of an injury. An initial period of rest is typically recommended for lack of mobility in acute injuries, followed by gentle movements that build up to more exercise. See a sports doctor or physical therapist to assess and treat mobility problems prior to resuming sports activity.
Instability
An unstable joint feels loose or like it wants to buckle or give out. This is often a sign of a ligament injury (like an ACL tear), as the injured joint is not adequately supported after it has been damaged.
Weakness
An injury that limits the strength of an injured area may signify structural damage to a muscle or tendon that prevents normal function. The inability to lift your arm or walk because of weakness should be evaluated by a medical professional, as there are other possible and concerning causes.
Numbness and Tingling
Numbness or tingling is a sign of nerve irritation or injury. Sometimes nerves are directly damaged; at other times, a nerve can be irritated by surrounding swelling or inflammation. Mild tingling is usually not a major problem, whereas the inability to feel an injured body part is more of a concern.
Redness
Redness at the injury site can be due to inflammation, or to an abrasion, allergy, or infection. If you have unexplained skin redness, particularly if the area is also hot to the touch, you should be evaluated by a medical professional.
Confusion or Headache
Even a mild head trauma can lead to a concussion, which can result in cognitive symptoms, such as confusion, difficulty concentrating, and memory problems, as well as headache, dizziness, nausea, and irritability.
A concussion can have serious consequences and should not be ignored. If a blow to the head causes any immediate symptoms or loss of consciousness, seek medical attention, even if the symptoms pass.
Diagnosis & Treatment
Acute and chronic injuries can be diagnosed by our General Medicine Department, Sports Medicine Department, or Orthopedic Department, although non-physician professionals trained to diagnose and manage these injuries, such as in our Physical Therapy Department, are also equipped to diagnose and treat sports related injuries and conditions.
You will need to provide a medical history and information about how the injury occurred, and undergo a physical examination.
During the physical examination, your health care professional will palpate the area and ask about the degree of pain or tenderness. You will be asked to move the injured area to test its range of motion as well.
Depending on the suspected injury and level of pain or disability, your doctor may take X-rays to rule out any broken bones. While some broken bones are evident on an initial X-ray, some fractures (e.g., a simple fracture of the wrist or hairline fracture in the foot) may not be noticeable until a few days later, once healing of the injury has begun.
Additional diagnostic imaging tests may be ordered to determine soft-tissue damage. These may be ordered during the initial visit or after a period of treatment is ineffective, and include the following.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): This is often used for diagnostic imaging of muscle injuries, joint damage, sprains, fractures, and head injuries sustained during sports. MRIs use radio waves within a strong magnetic field to examine musculoskeletal structures, including bones, tendons, muscles, ligaments, and nerves. At Aptiva Health, we offer on-site MRI.
Ultrasound: Useful for assessing tendon damage, in an ultrasound, sound waves take real-time images of superficial soft tissues. During an ultrasound, the radiologist may ask you to move the joint to see how motion affects the tendon.
Computed tomography (CT) scans: A CT scan provides a more detailed look at bones and soft tissues. This test can show hairline fractures and small irregularities within complex joints.
Treatment
Your course of treatment will depend on the location and severity of your injury. Initial treatment for many sports injuries is aimed at controlling inflammation and promoting the healing response.
The acronym R.I.C.E. is a helpful guide for the immediate treatment of most acute injuries. When performing R.I.C.E. treatment, you will take the following steps:
Rest: Limit the forces acting on the injured part of the body. This generally means stopping your sports activity, and it may mean using crutches, a sling, or another aid to fully rest the area.
Ice: Ice is helpful at controlling swelling and inflammation, and it can also help tremendously with pain reduction. Many athletes who ice an acute injury find they don't need pain pills to help alleviate discomfort.
Compress: Compression is performed by snugly, but not tightly, wrapping the injured part of the body with a compression bandage. Too-tight constriction can cause worsening of your symptoms and other problems.
Elevate: Elevating the injured extremity can also help reduce swelling and inflammation and, in turn, reduce pain.
After an initial period, rest should be replaced by protection and optimal loading. This technique is known as P.O.L.I.C.E. (protection, optimal loading, ice, compression, and elevation). Protecting the injured joint with an assistive device, such as crutches or a sling, while gently moving the joint and gradually putting weight on the injury will often help speed healing.
After the initial healing period, your doctor will determine what, if any, additional treatment is needed and may refer you to our another specialist within our group for your specific injury.
Additional treatments for sports injuries include:
Medication for inflammation and pain
Pain-relieving injections, such as a corticosteroid, PRP, or stem cell
Cupping
Scraping
Kinesiotaping
Traction
Surgery - sports, general orthopedic, or spine dependent upon the nature and severity of the injury or condition