Fractures: Symptoms, Complications, Repair

Many athletes will experience fractures during their athletic years.  A fracture is a break in a bone.  There are many types of fractures and athletes will, certainly, want to consult with a doctor before doing anything to repair the fracture.

One type of fracture is a closed one, where the overlying skin is not broken. In an open fracture, the broken bone actually pierces the skin.  Other types of fractures include transverse fractures, oblique fractures, spiral ones, comminuted fractures and avulsion fractures.

Athletes who experience a fracture will have pain, tenderness, bruising, swelling and restriction of movement.  Doctors repair fractures by resetting them and giving the fracture time to heal.  There are more risks of complications with open or displaced fractures since there is risk of infection.  Patients will often be treated with antibiotics in this type of situation.  It’s also important to pay attention to soft tissue damage to nearby muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves and blood vessels.

Sports Injuries: Spotlight on Bunions

Bunions are painful and often need intervention and surgery. They are a swelling that occurs on the soft tissue and a bone enlargement that takes place over the inside of the ball of the big toe.  There isn’t anything that athletes do that causes bunions; they are caused by genetics, age, wearing high heel shoes regularly, and by biomechanical factors.

Symptoms will include pain around the ball of the big toe and problems with wearing certain types of shoes. Some athletes will see the 1^st metatarsal moving outwards.  Answers for athletes include cutting a hole for the bunion in a piece of padding, seeing a sports injury specialist or podiatrist to have an orthotic device made, or separating the big toe and the one next to it with a bunion split.

Athletes can consult with a podiatrist who can make orthotic devices or refer you for an operation on the bunions.  

Sports Massage for Athletes

Sports massage is one treatment method for some sports injuries. It is growing in popularity with the many benefits that it can offer for issues like shin splints, plantar fasciitis, ankle sprains, hamstring strains and others.

Sports massage can actually be used before an injury occurs, as a preventative measure.  A proper massage therapist can identify areas of the body that have muscle tightness, scar tissue and other issues and can target those areas. It can help to relax muscles, to increase stretching and to work through issues.

Before having sports massages, however, it’s important to make sure that you are suitable for this treatment. It is possible that a massage can exacerbate an injury and cause damage to the athlete’s health. It’s certainly important to consult with a physician before making plans for sports massage treatment or for any other treatment method.

Running Injuries

It should come as no surprise that serious runners tend to have sports injuries at times.  There are certainly important steps that runners can take to prevent such injuries. Runners need to research the footwear that they select and be sure that they have the right type of running shoes on their feet. They need to stretch properly before heading out on a run and they need to work on cross-training to keep their bodies fit for the endurance that is being asked of them.

Common sports injuries for runners include hip and thigh injuries, knee injuries, leg injuries and ankle injuries.  Runners may find that they have hip bursitis, snapping hip syndrome or iliotibial band syndrome.  It is often quite common to pull a hamstring.  This injury is most commonly seen in sprinters, and it’s important to get help quickly to ensure a fast recovery.  Hip stress fractures are also fairly common, particularly for long-distance runners.

Serious runners should consult with an orthopedic before beginning their training. They should make sure that they are wearing the proper shoes – and that they are replacing those shoes when they wear down.  The more preventative runners are with their health, the less injuries they will find themselves nursing along the way.

Football Sport Injuries

Certainly, football is one of the roughest sports that athletes play.  Therefore, doctors tend to see many sports injuries that stem from this activity. Sports injuries from football can range from the most mundane to the most serious.  Most athletes, at one time or another, will have sprains and strains.  This is the most common type of football sport injury and is usually treated with rest, ice, compression and elevation (known as the R.I.C.E method). 

Other mild injuries in football include turf toe, which is an injury to the big toe from running and jumping on hard surfaces and sprained ankles.  More serious sports injuries from football include fractures, most commonly found on fingers, wrists and legs and Achilles tendonitis. This tendonitis occurs on the back of the ankle and should be treated to prevent tendon ruptures.

Some football players will experience ACL tears, which is an injury to the ligament in the knee.  Torn cartilage and concussions are also highly common with football and need to be checked out by a doctor as soon as the issue is suspected.  The rarest type of football injury, but the most highly publicized, is the spine injury.