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Sports injury of the pediatric musculoskeletal system

  • PAEDIATRIC RADIOLOGY
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Abstract

Sports related injuries are common in children and adolescents, with a reported incidence of around one in ten children each year. Boys incur more and severer sports injuries than girls, and chance for injury is greater with contact or jumping sports. Sports injuries seen in children under 10-years of age are non-specific, including contusions, mild sprains, and extremity fractures, usually Salter fractures of the physes (growth plate) or plastic fractures. In the very young athlete, sports injury of the ligaments or muscle is rare as are spine or head injuries. With growth and adolescence, the intensity of sports involvement increases. Pre-pubertal children still have open physes that are prone to injury, both acute or due to stress from a repetitive activity. In addition to injury of the physes of the long bones, injuries to the physes of apophyses are common. Ligamentous injury is uncommon before physeal closure, but can occur. After the physes fuse, ligamentous injury is seen with patterns similar to adults. This review will include a description of sports related injuries seen in children and adolescents. We will concentrate on injuries that are specific for the growing skeleton, with a brief mention of those seen after fusion of the physes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Pediatric Radiology, Haukeland University Hospital, Jonas Lies vei 65, 5020, Bergen, Norway

    Karen Rosendahl

  2. Department of Clinical Medicine, K1, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Karen Rosendahl

  3. C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, 1540 E. Medical Center Drive, 3-220, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Peter J. Strouse

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  1. Karen Rosendahl
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karen Rosendahl.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

This article is based on Peter J. Strouse, Karen Rosendahl (2013) Specific Aspects of Sports Related Injuries of the Pediatric Musculoskeletal System. In: Hodler J, von Schulthess GK, Zollikofer ChL (eds) Musculoskeletal Diseases 2013–2016, Springer-Verlag Italia, Milan pp 194–202. © Springer-Verlag Italia 2013. With kind permission of Springer-Verlag Italia. All Rights Reserved.

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Rosendahl, K., Strouse, P.J. Sports injury of the pediatric musculoskeletal system. Radiol med 121, 431–441 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11547-015-0615-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11547-015-0615-0

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