Hamstring Injury...

Introduction
Hamstring injuries are common injuries in football, baseball, running sports, rugby, and soccer. In fact, an acute hamstring strain is believed to be the most common injury in adult male soccer players. Acute hamstring strains usually require a 2- to 6-week absence from sports, and they have a high recurrence rate.

How does a hamstring injury happen?
Acute hamstring strains are often noncontact injuries. Sprinting is a common activity leading to injury.

What are the risk factors?
The risk for acute hamstring strain increases with age and levels of competition. Other risk factors include imbalances in hamstring strength, decreased flexibility of the hip flexors, and higher body weight.

Prevention
Identifying athletes with hamstring strength imbalances and correcting them and having athletes perform agility and trunk stabilization programs may be beneficial. Given the amount of hamstring strains occurring in preseason, athletes athletes should enhance their sport-specific conditioning prior to the early training sessions.

Common Pediatric Sports and Recreational Injuries...

Every year, more than 38 million children and adolescents participate in organized sports in the United States, with even more involved in informal recreational activities. More than 2.6 million of these children aged 19 years and younger are treated in emergency departments annually for injuries related to sports and recreation. The most common of these are sprains and strains, bone and growth plate injuries, repetitive motion injuries, heat-related illness, and concussions. Other conditions of concern include cardiopulmonary conditions, infections, and exposure to certain insect species.

Knee Arthritis? Walk It Off...

A recent study suggested that increased walking may be linked with reduced risk of functional limitation for patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). The research team evaluated the association of steps/day at baseline with the development of functional limitation 2 years later among 1,788 participants with a mean age of 67 years. They found that each additional 1,000 steps/day was associated with a 16 percent reduction in incident functional limitation by performance-based measures and an 18 percent reduction by self-reported measures. The research team noted that walking at least 6,000 steps/day was the best threshold to distinguish incident functional limitation by performance-based measures.

The Sport of Cheerleading and Its Dangers...

Cheerleading is the number 1 cause of catastrophic injury in female athletes at both the high-school and college levels...

Tips For Avoiding Throwing Arm Injuries While Playing Youth Baseball...

-avoid pitching on consecutive days
-avoid pitching on multiple teams with overlapping seasons
-avoid pitching multiple games day
-remember playing catcher involves a high volume of throws

Common Youth Hockey Injuries...

According to findings published online in the journal Pediatrics, fractures and concussions are the most frequent injuries seen among youth ice hockey players. The research team reviewed records on 168 injuries to 155 children aged 18 years or younger with ice hockey-related injuries who were seen at a single, level 1 pediatric trauma center in Minnesota. Overall, extremity injuries were the most common, followed by traumatic brain injury (TBI), with injuries to the spine, face, and trunk being less common.

Increased Body Mass Linked To Increased Knee Replacement Rates...

A recent study has shown that body mass index (BMI) has played the most important role in increasing demand for knee replacement. The number of knee replacements in the US more than tripled from 1993 to 2009...