Common pediatric football (American) related extremity injuries: a pictorial essay

the young population.Early exposure to sport-specific training can have broad physical, social, and psychological effects on young athletes.It is linked to higher risks of overuse and serious injuries, along with emotional exhaustion and unmet psychological needs.Although many consensus statements caution against early specialization, the exact relationship between this practice and its negative outcomes remains unclear [4].The purpose of this pictorial essay is to review the commonly encountered injury types from American football seen in pediatric patients and discuss management approaches.Specifically we will focus on non-neurologic injuries as outlined in Table 1. Upper extremityA retrospective review of football-related injuries treated at a level 1 pediatric referral hospital emergency department and surrounding urgent care clinics between January 2010 and January 2014 indicated that fractures were the most common type of injury across all age groups.The fracture rate, which had risen steadily to 47.6% among those aged 12-14 years, dropped significantly to 26.2% in the 15-18year age group.Conversely, soft tissue injuries showed a marked increase in the 15-18-year group.[3] ShoulderThe glenohumeral joint is a ball-and-socket joint, one of the most mobile joints in the human body, and a commonly encountered injury site.The shoulder is the most commonly dislocated large joint in adolescent athletes, with a spectrum of glenohumeral dysfunction ranging from frank acute dislocation to subacute multidirectional instability [5].Injuries involving the glenohumeral joint include shoulder dislocation, fractures, labral tears, and rotator cuff tears.