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Sports Injury

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Throughout my junior and senior year of high school I was a part of the Student Athletic Training Team in the Sports Medicine Department of Wakefield High School. To help better understand the injuries we encountered out in the field I enrolled in the Sports Medicine class that was offered by the school. The class was taught by the Head Athletic Trainer who believed in hands on learning, especially for his student trainers. During the duration of the course and my time as a member of the team we saw numerous different types of injuries but there were three that happened more frequently than the others.
The first injury to happen frequently, usually seen in football and soccer players, is an ankle sprain, which is an injury to the ligaments …show more content…

A muscle strain is the stretching or tearing of a muscle or its attaching tendons. This injury is caused by the violent, forceful contraction or the overstretching of the muscle or tendon. This is usually caused by muscle fatigue, overuse or improper use and stretching of the muscle. A first degree strain is due to the overstretching and micro or slight tearing of the muscle or tendon. There is no gross fiber disruption but there is mild pain and tenderness. Typically, the athlete has full range of motion without pain but pain can sometimes occur during a resistive muscle contraction; for example, pushing against a wall or pulling against a resistance band. A second degree muscle strain is the further stretching or partial tearing of a muscle or tendon fibers which causes immediate pain and localized tenderness and disability. There are varying degrees of swelling, ecchymosis, decreased range of motion and strength based on the location of the injury. This degree of a strain causes pain with active muscle contraction and passive muscle stretching (i.e. walking or lifting weights). There may also be a palpable or tangible defect to the area that is affected by the …show more content…

The most common muscle to rupture is in the group of muscles of the rotator cuff. The rotator cuff is a part of the shoulder that is composed of four muscles which keep the head of the humerus in the shoulder socket. The four muscles that make up the rotator cuff are: the supraspinatus (which is the most common muscle to rupture), infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis. There are four levels of a rotator cuff tear: a grade one, a small and partial tear (less than 1cm deep); a grade two, a medium and partial tear (1-3cm deep) which does not exceed one-half of the tendon thickness; a grade three, a large but partial tear (3-5cm); and a grade four, a massive and partial or complete tear (greater than 5cm deep). The symptoms of a rotator cuff tear are: pain at rest and at night, particularly if weight is on the affected shoulder, pain when lifting and lowering the arm or with specific movements and a change in the range of motion. There will be weakness when lifting or rotating the affected arm with possible crepitus or crackling sensation. Although there are multiple degrees of a rotator cuff tear, the symptoms are relatively similar with the intensity of the pain varying throughout the extent of the injury. Unlike the previous injuries, this injury is normally treated with surgery. Whether the

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