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Acute Catastrophic Injuries in High School Sports

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Injury in Pediatric and Adolescent Sports

Part of the book series: Contemporary Pediatric and Adolescent Sports Medicine ((PASM))

Abstract

While very rare, catastrophic injuries in adolescent sports have a major impact on athletes and their families when they do occur. This chapter reviews and summarizes the sparse research on direct catastrophic injuries in high school sports. A direct catastrophic injury is defined as a sport injury that resulted from participation in the skills of a sport, and resulted in a fatality or in a nonfatal brain or spinal cord injury, or skull or spinal fracture. The data for this chapter were provided by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina, which has the most extensive and complete data set on this issue relative to high school and college sports. This chapter reviews and summarizes what is known about the frequency and rate of occurrence of these injuries in various high school sports, possible risk factors for these injuries, injury mechanisms and provides suggestions regarding what can be done to reduce the risk of occurrence and severity of these injuries.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Statewide Campus System, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Eric D. Zemper PhD, FACSM

  2. Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Karen G. Roos PhD, MSPT, ATC

  3. Department of Kinesiology and Public Health Education, University of North Dakota, 2751 2nd Ave N Stop 8235, Grand Forks, ND, 58203-8235, USA

    Dennis Caine PhD

Authors
  1. Eric D. Zemper PhD, FACSM
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  2. Karen G. Roos PhD, MSPT, ATC
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  3. Dennis Caine PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eric D. Zemper PhD, FACSM .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA

    Dennis Caine

  2. McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Laura Purcell

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Zemper, E.D., Roos, K.G., Caine, D. (2016). Acute Catastrophic Injuries in High School Sports. In: Caine, D., Purcell, L. (eds) Injury in Pediatric and Adolescent Sports. Contemporary Pediatric and Adolescent Sports Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18141-7_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18141-7_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-18140-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-18141-7

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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