Skip Navigation


British Medical Bulletin Advance Access originally published online on February 18, 2008
British Medical Bulletin 2008 86(1):33-57; doi:10.1093/bmb/ldn001
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
86/1/33    most recent
ldn001v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Shanmugam, C.
Right arrow Articles by Maffulli, N.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Shanmugam, C.
Right arrow Articles by Maffulli, N.
Related Collections
Right arrow Sports Medicine
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Sports injuries in children

Chezhiyan Shanmugam and Nicola Maffulli*

Department of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, Keele University School of Medicine, Stoke-on-Trent, UK

* Correspondence to: Nicola Maffulli Department of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, Keele University School of Medicine, Thornburrow Drive, Hartshill Stoke-on-Trent ST4 7QB, UK. E-mail: n.maffulli{at}keele.ac.uk

Introduction: Sports injuries in children affect both growing bone and soft tissues, and can result in damage of growth mechanisms with subsequent lifelong, growth disturbance. This clinical review unfolds the incidence and distribution, physiology, injury characteristics and the prevention modalities.

Methods: A comprehensive in Medline literature search was performed, and the reference lists of sports injuries related journals and text books was consulted.

Results: During growth, there are significant changes in the biomechanical properties of bone. In young athletes, as bone stiffness increases and resistance to impact diminishes, sudden overload may cause bones to bow or buckle. Fractures that are initially united with some deformity can completely remodel, and the bone may appear totally normal in later life.

Discussion/conclusion: Most injuries caused in children's sports are minor and self-limiting, suggesting that children and youth sports are safe. The training programmes should take into account their physical and psychological immaturity, so that growing athletes can adjust to the changes in their bodies.

Keywords: musculoskeletal system • epidemiology • upper limb • lower limb • spine • children • sports injuries

Accepted for publication January 2, 2008.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Br. J. Sports. Med.Home page
T W Heggie
Paediatric and adolescent sport injury in the wilderness
Br. J. Sports Med., January 1, 2010; 44(1): 50 - 55.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.