What is Sports Traumatology?
Sports traumatology is a branch of traumatology that deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of injuries that occur during sports practice, in addition to trying to provide the early return of the athlete to their usual practice.
Sports injuries can occur violently, due to overuse or training defects, technical deficiencies, incorrect use of clothing, fitness deficit, among other causes.
Active treatments are used that allow the patient to return to normal sports practice as soon as possible in the best possible conditions.
What is the difference between classic traumatology and sports traumatology?
Sports traumatology specializes in the needs of the athlete and classic traumatology deals generically with injuries of the locomotor system.
The specialist in sports traumatology has an in-depth knowledge of the different sports and understands the different situations faced by the athlete. In addition, not only must they have a great anatomical, medical or physiological knowledge of the human body, but it is essential that they have the ability to deal with injuries at different times of the sport (training, time in the season, competition expectations, etc.) and many other factors that may affect the injury.
What are the most common injuries in athletes that are treated in sports traumatology?
The most frequent injuries are:
- Ankle sprain.
- Muscle tears.
- Tendinitis and tendinopathies (tennis elbow, golf elbow, Achilles tendon ruptures).
- Knee injuries (meniscal tears and ruptures of the anterior or posterior cruciate ligament), cartilage injuries.
- Shoulder injuries (dislocation and tendinopathies), among others.
What treatments are performed in sports traumatology?
The correct treatment in sports traumatology is based on the preparation of a medical history of each player that includes both family and personal health history, as well as a history of injuries or surgical interventions and orthopedic aspects. To this data, we must add those obtained by performing a sports admission test that assesses postural, musculoskeletal, articular, ligament, physical fitness, etc. and risk factors for the occurrence of injuries according to the sport.
Some of the treatments performed in this specialty are:
- Echoguided Electrolysis, known as USGET or EPI, is a highly innovative method of medicine and physiotherapy that allows to precisely target injured tendons, muscles or ligaments, effectively treating sports injuries such as:
- Achilles tendonitis
- Patellar tendonitis
- Pubalgia
- Epicondylitis
- Rotator cuff tendinitis (supraspinatus)
- Plantar fasciitis
- Trochanteritis
- Iliotibial band syndrome
- Muscle ruptures (hamstring, biceps femoris, calf, soleus…)
- Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) is a highly effective treatment to stimulate healing, regeneration and healing of damaged tissues, such as:
- Tendon ruptures.
- Chronic tendinopathies.
- Ligament injuries.
- Muscle injuries.
- Focal cartilage injuries.
- Arthrosis.
- Hyaluronic acid: Hyaluronic acid injections reduce pain and reactivate the functionality of the joints thanks to the lubricating, mechanical and biochemical effect of the treatment. The most common areas to be treated are:
- Knees (this is the joint that most frequently receives this treatment).
- Ankles
- Hips
- Shoulders
- Hands