Is Proper Conditioning Really the Answer to Avoid Heat Illness?

Timing and predictors of mild and severe heat illness among new military enlistees.

Nelson DA, Deuster PA, O’Connor FG, and Kurina LM. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2018. [Epub Ahead of Print].

https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2018&issue=08000&article=00009&type=Abstract

Take Home Message: Cases of mild and severe heat illness are more likely to occur in the first 6 months of activity and are also associated with younger age and body mass index (low and high).

To help prevent heat illnesses, a potentially life-threatening condition, clinicians need to understand when heat illnesses occur and who is at greater risk. Therefore, Nelson and colleagues completed a retrospective study to determine who is more likely develop heat illness among 238,168 US Army soldiers who enlisted between January 2011 and December 2014.

The Best Defense is a Good Offense: Athletic Trainers’ Impact on Injury Rates in School-based Settings

Injuries in girls’ soccer and basketball: a comparison of high schools with and without athletic trainers

Pierpoint LA, LaBella CR, Collins CL, Fields SK, Comstock RD. Inj Epidemiol. 2018; (5)29;1–8. doi:10.1186/s40621-018-0159-6

Full Text Freely Available

Take Home Message: The presence of an athletic trainer in a high school is associated with a lower rate of injury – especially recurrent injury – in girls’ basketball and soccer. Concussion diagnosis improved in schools with athletic trainers.

Sport participation, regardless of level, will always pose some risk of physical injury. In addition to physical limitations, athletic injury can also cause psychosocial and economic concerns. In addition to an athletic trainer (AT) providing immediate medical attention to an injury, they can also mitigate risk of sport participation through proper emergency planning; implementation of prevention programs; monitoring of health and safety measures for weather, equipment, and playing conditions; and determining when an athlete is ready for return to activity post-injury. To investigate this impact of having an AT on site, the authors compared injury surveillance data from girls’ basketball and soccer between high schools with and without an AT.

Overcoming Fear May Not Help Your Post ACL Walk

Association Between Kinesiophobia and Walking Gait Characteristics in Physically Active Individuals with Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction

Luc-Harkey BA, Franz JR, Losina E, & Pietrosimone B.  Gait and Posture. Published online June 15, 2018 64: 220-225. DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2018.06.029

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29933185

Take Home Message: Kinesiophobia was unrelated to gait characteristics during a walk among physically active individuals with an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction involves a challenging and difficult rehabilitation process, which is relatively successful in returning patients to physical activity. Unfortunately, too often patients fail to return to pre-injury levels of activity, pain, and gait mechanics.  Most patients experience some sort of fear of reinjury/movement or gait avoidance patterns after an ACL injury. A persons’ fear of reinjury/movement may contribute to gait changes; however, this is untested. Hence, these researchers explored if fear of re-injury/movement related to gait characteristics among physically active individuals after an ACL reconstruction.

Recommendations for participation in leisure time or competitive sports in athletes-patients with coronary artery disease: a position statement from the Sports Cardiology Section of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC)

Recommendations for participation in leisure time or competitive sports in athletes-patients with coronary artery disease: a position statement from the Sports Cardiology Section of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC)

Borjesson M, Dellborg M, Niebauer J, LaGerche A, Schmied C, Solberg EE, Halle M, Adami E, Biffi A, Carré F, Caselli S, Papadakis M, Pressler A, Rasmusen H, Serratosa L, Sharma S, van Buuren F, Pelliccia A. Eur Heart J. 2018 Jul 19. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehy408. [Epub ahead of print]

Full Text Freely Available

The Sports Cardiology Section of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC) released recommendations to encourage safe regular physical activity, including sports, for all individuals with coronary artery disease. The document is based on current evidence, but often needed to rely on clinical experience and expert opinion. The authors discuss “asymptomatic athletes with absence of clinically evident coronary artery disease”, “clinically proven coronary artery disease”, “recommendations”, and “non-coronary artery disease related myocardial ischaemia”.

View 167 other recent position statements, consensus statements, guidelines, and recommendations related to sports medicine.

Concussion management in combat sports: consensus statement from the Association of Ringside Physicians

Concussion management in combat sports: consensus statement from the Association of Ringside Physicians.

Neidecker J, Sethi NK, Taylor R, Monsell R, Muzzi D, Spizler B, Lovelace L, Ayoub E, Weinstein R, Estwanik J, Reyes P, Cantu RC, Jordan B, Goodman M, Stiller JW,, Gelber J, Boltuch R, Coletta D, Gagliardi A, Gelfman S, Golden P, Rizzo N, Wallace P, Fields A, Inalsingh C. Br J Sports Med. 2018 Jul 26. pii: bjsports-2017-098799. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2017-098799. [Epub ahead of print]

Full Text Freely Available

“The Association of Ringside Physicians (an international, non-profit organisation dedicated to the health and safety of the combat sports athlete) sets forth this consensus statement to establish management guidelines that ringside physicians, fighters, referees, trainers, promoters, sanctioning bodies and other healthcare professionals can use in the ringside

setting. We also provide guidelines for the return of a combat sports athlete to competition after sustaining a concussion.” The document includes definitions and clarifications of key terms, a review of literature, a review of current practices, and a return to fighting protocol.

View 166 other recent position statements, consensus statements, guidelines, and recommendations related to sports medicine.

Pain in the Back: Incidence and Risk Factors in Youth Court Sport Athletes

Incidence and risk factors for back pain in young floorball and basketball players: A Prospective study

Rossi MK, Pasanen K, Heinonen A, Myklebust G, Kannus P, Kujala UM, Parkkari J. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2018 Jun 8. doi: 10.1111/sms.13237. [Epub ahead of print]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29883001

Take Home Message: Low back pain, especially recurrent back pain, is common among youth basketball and floorball athletes. Lower limb strength and flexibility measures failed to predict who would develop low back pain.

Basketball and floorball (floor hockey) include similar sport-specific demands that require an athlete to maintain control of their lower extremity while performing rotational trunk motions. Low back injuries are common among these athletes. However, there is little information on incidence rates and risk factors for back pain among youth basketball and floorball athletes. Therefore, the authors performed a prospective study on 396 youth basketball or floorball athletes in Finland (2011 to 2015) to determine rates of traumatic and non-traumatic back pain in youth athletes. They also tested risk factors for low back pain.

Return to Sport Does Not Mean Return to Same Performance Level

Return to play, performance, and career duration after anterior cruciate ligament rupture: A case-control study in the five biggest football nations in Europe.

Niederer D, Engeroff T, Wilke J, Vogt L, Banzer W. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2018. [Epub Ahead of Print].

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29927499

Take Home Message: Elite soccer players have rates of high return to play after an ACL reconstruction; however, it can take up to 2 years to return to a similar performance level as their peers. Furthermore, they may be more likely to have a shorter career than their peers.

While many patients after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction return to play, they are at risk for serious long-term problems (e.g., re-injury, osteoarthritis), which could adversely affect his/her performance level after returning to play. Prior investigators have struggled to account for various factors that may contribute to retirement or diminished performance after an ACL reconstruction. Therefore, the authors looked at top-level European football (soccer) athletes to compare return-to-play rates, career duration, and game performance of athletes who underwent ACL reconstruction and matched control athletes.