The Truth About Most Sports Injuries

When we think of sports injuries, we think of major injuries, broken bones, torn ACL’s, ruptured Achilles, the list goes on.  These are the catastrophic injuries that often end a player’s season and oftentimes require surgery and/or an extensive rehabilitation process. 

The truth is, these injuries are relatively rare! Much more common are the minor aches, pains, bruises, strains, and sprains. Often, these relatively minor injuries will not actually require medical intervention! 

Often times, athletes and their parents will want to immediately go to a doctor and seek advanced imaging like an MRI.  This is what we hear every time we flip on ESPN or the local news, “star player is out for indefinite period of time, team is awaiting MRI results.”  The truth is that for most people, imaging is not always needed and can actually sometimes add confusion.  What the average person does not know about MRIs it that there can be extremely high false positive rates in imaging. The radiologist may find an abnormality, but it can be unrelated to the current pain the athlete is experiencing. Additionally, numerous studies have shown that MRI results have no correlation between image findings and time to return-to-play after a muscle injury.

Let’s face it, the medical system is complicated. You could see a Primary Care Doctor, an Orthopedic Surgeon, a Nurse Practitioner, a Physician Assistant, the Athletic Trainer at a high school, a Chiropractor or a Physical Therapist.  As a patient, it can be confusing to know where to go first. At Kinetic Sports Medicine, we want to help.  We offer free injury screens to athletes in order to guide an athlete down the appropriate path to get back on the field as quickly and safely as possible.  Usually, we recommend one of the following:

1. You would benefit from a rehabilitation program to get you back to playing at 100%
2. You need to see a Doctor for additional follow up and/or some advanced imaging like x-ray, MRI, etc.  We work with some of the best surgeons in the area and can recommend the most appropriate physician based on your injury. We can often facilitate getting an appointment scheduled as quickly as possible to expedite your care.
3. You don’t need any medical help, we can provide you reassurance that you will be OK, advice on activity modifications, an adjustment to your training, and you will feel better soon.

Our goal is that by providing a free injury screen, we are able to help you sort through the confusion and concern over a potential injury, and ultimately get you the most appropriate medical care possible. Reach out today to see how we can help you!