football injuries

Lisfranc injury

The Lisfranc injury (also known as the Lisfranc fracture, Lisfranc dislocation,Lisfranc fracture dislocation, tarsometatarsal injury, or simply midfoot injury) is aninjury of the foot in which one or more of the metatarsal bones are displaced from thetarsus. This type of injury is named after Jacques Lisfranc de St. Martin (2 April 1790–13 May 1847), a French surgeon and gynecologist who first described the injury in 1815, after the War of the Sixth Coalition.

Unhappy triad

An unhappy triad (or terrible triad, "horrible triangle", O'Donoghue's triad or a"blown knee") is an injury to the anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament, and the meniscus. The triad refers to a complete or partial tear of the anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament, and the meniscus. Originally the "unhappy triad" included the medial meniscus and not the lateral meniscus. However, during the 1990s, analysis indicated that the 'classic' O'Donoghue triad is actually an unusual clinical entity among athletes with knee injuries. In this type of injury, acute tears of the medial meniscus always present with a concomitant lateral meniscus injury. However, the lateral meniscus tears are far more common than medial meniscus tears in sprains of the ACL.

The anterior cruciate ligament

The anterior cruciate ligament is one of the four crucial ligaments in the knee. It originates from the lateral condyle of the femur and goes to the intercondyloid eminence of the tibia. Its function is to provide stability in the knee and minimize stress across the knee joint. It also restrains excessive forward movement in the leg and limits rotational movements in the knee.

Anterior cruciate ligament tear:

Injury

An anterior cruciate ligament injury results from excess tension the ligament. This can be done from a sudden stop or twisting motion of the knee. A few initial symptoms include swelling, knee instability, and pain. A popping sound or sensation may or may not be heard when the ACL first tears. A following symptom usually includes the feeling of the knee "giving out". Tearing of the ACL is the most significant injury because it leaves the knee unstable, which also causes the knee to lose its normal function.

Epidemiology

It is estimated that 100,000 new anterior cruciate ligament injuries occur each year.Approximately half of the new ACL injuries involve injuries to the ligament, tendon, and or muscle of that affected knee.Women are at greater risk for ACL injuries than men due to their greater Q angle. The Q angle is the angle formed by a line drawn from the anterior superior iliac spineto central patella and a second line drawn from central patella to tibial tubercle.

Brain injury

Players in the National Football League have a high risk of brain-related injuries. The Concussions Committee of the NFL, co-chaired by Dr. Ira Casson, has generally denied that concussions result in permanent brain injury.However, there is research, reported in 2009, which, using phone interviews based on the National Health Interview Survey, showed increased incidence of diagnosis of memory lossand dementia among retired professional football players.^[4] Such symptoms are believed related to the effects of concussion. This finding is considered significant because such injuries may potentially affect high school and college players also.Since then, commissioner Roger Goodell has become an advocate for increased research on brain injuries and long term disorders, and called for a change of cultured needed in the league.

An estimated 43,000 to 67,000 players endure a concussion during every high school football season, though because many such injuries go unreported, that number may well exceed 100,000, as noted by a Purdue University study published in the Journal of Neurotrauma, "Functionally-Detected Cognitive Impairment in High School Football Players Without Clinically Diagnosed Concussion." That study also examined the health of 21 players throughout the course of a season. The 21 players experienced 15,264 significant collision events across 48 practices and games (an average of 15.5 collision events per player per organized activity); four of the 21 players were diagnosed with a concussion. The study also found that a portion of the players with no clinically observable signs of concussion still showed significant functional impairments when observed with MRI technology or verbal/cognitive testing. This suggests that a new category of brain-related injury problem needs to be diagnosed. Overall, the data suggest "the presence of a previously unknown, but suspected … group of athletes exhibiting neurocognitive deficits that persist over time, but which does not present observable symptoms." The study's authors say the findings indicate current on-field tests for concussions may not be sufficient in determining full risks to the brain