Recognition and management of traumatic sports injuries in the skeletally immature athlete.

Over the last decade, participation in organized youth sports has risen to include over 35 million contestants.(1) The rise in participation has brought about an associated increase in both traumatic and overuse injuries in the youth athlete, which refers to both children and adolescents within a general age range of seven to 17. Exposure rates alone do not account for the increase in injuries. Societal pressures to perform at high levels affect both coaches and athletes and lead to inappropriate levels of training intensity, frequency, and duration. In this environment high physiologic stresses are applied to the immature skeleton of the youth athlete causing injury. Typically, since bone is the weakest link in the incomplete ossified skeleton, the majority of traumatic injuries result in fractures that occur both at mid-shaft and at the growth centers of bone. The following clinical commentary describes the common traumatic sports injuries that occur in youth athletes, as well as those which require rapid identification and care in order to prevent long term sequelae.