14 DAY TRIAL // 1. You continuously hear about the health state or the accidents suffered by sport stars. Even you can experience small lesions, a wrench or a muscular contracture without making sport.
But, in the case of practicing a sport, even the character of the person can harden the treatment. Many sportsmen, even when amateurs, are eager to return to their favorite activity and do not accept the condemnation to inactivity due to an apparently minor lesion. If the person is a famous sportsman, a lot of money and prestige are involved, too. Rapid recovery is essential. That's why many sportsmen do not respect the recommendation not to effectuate movements implying the affected organ at all. Lesions can aggravate, and the issue can be severer now, that's why sportive psychology is so important in our days.
2. The body parts most exposed to accidents are the knee (24%), the thigh and the heel (including Achilles tendon) 14%, elbow (13%), shin (10%), shoulder and hips (9%), head and cheek (7%), ankle (5%), wrist and palm (4%) and loins (1%).
3. The proper wear and equipment prevent accidents. Sport shoes must protect and hold the feet, but not tight and without causing sole blisters. For skating, the footwear must resemble the boots. For running on the street, the footwear must absorb the shocks emerged during the contact of the foot with the concrete, sparing the spine.
Some sports demand protection equipment, like amateur boxing, when the adversaries enter the ring equipped with safety helmets, gloves and dental protection. In American football, rugby and biking, protection helmets are required, too, and in some water sports, the life jackets.
In American football, which rather resembles rugby and not what Europeans call football (soccer), in many cases, players weighing 130 kg (280 pounds) each collide at speeds of 35 km (20 mi) per hour. There is a real protection armor for this sport: coverings for shin, knee, thighs, hips, loins, thorax, shoulder, plus gloves, dental protection and helmet.
4. At the beginning of the game or the season, accidents are more frequent, because the players reach the top form at the middle of the championship. During the preparation for the championship and to the end of the season, the stress increases, and the focusing capacity decreases.
Warm up movements are recommended before competitions, for relaxing tensed muscles, intensify heart beats, speed up circulation and increase the cognitive abilities. Warm up means preparing the body and limb muscles, flexions and stretches of the articulations.
5. The accidents are of several types. One category is of those caused by the intense and prolonged use of a body part. Sports are delimited in two large categories. One of them implies repetitive continuous movements, like running, rowing or biking. The conditions caused by these sports are rather internal, like elbow pains caused by tennis. Other sports are characterized by irregular movements, like football, rugby, hockey, cricket and basket. Lesions are caused especially by violent clashes between the sportsmen or by the employed equipment.
The sportive medic has to practice mainly muscles, articulations and bones. Most issues are represented by deformation of the soft tissues: contractions, wrenches, cuts, bruises and other lesions.
6. Muscle lesions. When the muscle is contracted or overworked, usually due to a sudden or unusual movement, a part of the soft muscle tissue can break apart. The thigh is extremely vulnerable to such accidents, especially during the jumps or turns.
The affected muscle contracts and due to the inner bleeding, it swells. It turns sensitive, painful and non-functional. The muscle must be wrapped or fixed with a bandage and rested till the pain goes and sensitivity gets down to normal. Muscular rupture appears when a great part of the muscle is broken, interrupting its continuity. This wound requires clinic treatment.
Tendon lesions. Tendons can experience contractions or break like muscles do. Extremely vulnerable are the tendons of the hands, fingers, knee and Achilles tendon.
Articulation lesions. A wrench means the articulation, due to an enormous power, stretches and the conjunctive fibers break off. This causes swelling and pain, which intensify by moving the articulation. In mild cases, the articulation can be wrapped and rested. Severe wrenches are associated with the risk of inner hemorrhage and permanent damage of the fibers of the articulation; clinic treatment is required.
7. Abarticulation means the bone extremities are distanced one from another in an articulation. Shoulder abarticulation means that the spherical head of the humerus bone got out of the shoulder blade articulation. The fibers of the articulation are broken and this is accompanied by intense pain, and damage of the surrounding muscles, nerves and blood vessels. This shoulder accident is common because the upper extremity of the humerus stays in a small cavity. This confers higher mobility and also higher vulnerability. In all cases, abarticulations must be treated rapidly and checked, for avoiding permanent deteriorations.
8. The knee is the most complex articulation of the human body. It has two free sickle-shaped cartilages: meniscus medialis and meniscus lateralis. They are placed between the femur and tibia; they do not replace but extend the hyaline, the material covering the extremities of the bones joining at the articulation.
The menisci can suffer contusions when we contort the foot or turn around suddenly. If overworked for long periods, even several years, they can wear out in time due to small wounds. This cartilage codition is treated by eliminating one or both menisci, as the knee articulation works well even without them.
9. Tendons rub constantly over the neighboring bones. The mucus layer forms a "pillow": it reduces the friction and lubricate the contact surfaces. The damage of the mucus layer or overworking can make the tendon to swell or break, then inflame, fact that turns painful the movement of the limb. The inflammation of the mucus layer above the kneecap is called 'nun knee' and it is frequent in some sports.
The inflammation of the conjunctive tissue of the muscle can also appear when a rupture or lesion heal incorrectly. This happens especially in the case of shoulder, elbow ("gulf elbow" for the lower side and "tennis elbow" for the upper side) or heel tendons.
10. A frequent lesion of the bones is the fracture.
Simple (closed) fractures mean that muscles and tissues around the bones deteriorate less. Complex (open) fractures mean that the broken bone pierces through the surrounding tissues and skin. If the bone cracks or breaks, but the broken parts do not distance, than the fracture is partial; otherwise it is total.
A special category of fractures is specific to running and marches. It affects the foot's column (lateral, intermediary and medial cuneiform bones). At the beginning, they cause mild pain in the heel but, in time, the pain grows with the practicing of the movements. The bones and tendons of the hand suffer severe wounds in mountaineering, boxing, basket and cricket.
Fractures must be treated clinically. If the broken extremities of the bones do not match well and sold incorrectly, the bones can get deformed and hurt permanently.
Extremely important: in the case of the spine, pelvis or leg fracture, the other players must not try to put the feet up or lift the wounded; this can aggravate the issue and even paralyze the victim.
11. The skull can experience powerful blows, and brain can be affected. If a sportsman loses conscience, medical care must be offered immediately. Inner hemorrhage can offer obvious symptoms only after several hours and days, but until then, it may cause permanent damage to the brain. The leak of a watery liquid through the ears is a warning signal, as it may come from the brain or spine.