Health & Safety

Many of the new youth sports concussion safety laws contain broad language allowing any "qualified health care professional" to make the all-important return-to-play decision after concussion, but, says Marjorie Albohm, MS, ATC, President of the National Athletic Trainer's Association, it is a certified athletic trainer (AT) or team doctor who are best qualified to make that call.

ACL tears occur in a variety of sports, says Lyle Micheli, M.D., Director, Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, and require surgical repair as soon as possible to avoid the arthritic changes associated with a delay in reconstructive surgery and, hopefully, the need for more surgery later.  While a failure rate of 20% is not uncommon, the failure rate at Children's is much lower, around 5%.

Sports medicine doctors play an important role in sports injury prevention and treatment, says Lyle Micheli, M.D., Director, Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston.

While organized youth sports participation has increased exponentially, both in the U.S. and around the world, safety has not kept pace, despite calls for instituting more safety programs, laments Lyle Micheli, M.D., Director, Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston.

The benefits of sports participation are numerous, says Lyle Micheli, M.D., Director, Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, including improved physical fitness and opportunities for socialization.  Parents should help their child find a sport they enjoy, but too much sports can result in psychological burnout, physical injuries, and turn the child off to physical exercise.

The time to address issues of such as obesity and lack of physical fitness is before a child begins playing sports, says Lyle Micheli, M.D., Director, Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston.

Three risk factors for heat illness among athletes, says Lyle Micheli, M.D., Director, Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, are a lack of heat acclimatization (which can take 2 or 3 weeks), a general lack of physical fitness, and obesity.

Lyle Micheli, M.D., Director, Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, says the focus in the hospital's concussion clinic going forward will be on concussion prevention.

The emphasis in youth sports safety should be on injury prevention, says Lyle Micheli, M.D., Director, Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, because many of the risk factors for injury can be controlled.

Lyle Micheli, M.D., Director, Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, discusses the elements of an ideal pre-participation physical evaluation (PPE).