[Orthopaedic examination of gymnasts]

A gymnast is prone to catch specific acute and overload injuries as well. Those injuries are concentrated at the spine due to the fact, that high load is administered to the growing apophyseal elements. Preventive X-ray examinations are useless in this respect, because the gymnasts training starts at the age of 5-6 years and apophyseal ossification nuclei develop not before the age of about 11-13 years. On the other hand regular performed preventive clinical examinations seem to be important for preventive reasons. For this purpose we developed specific clinical tests which allow early recognition of overuse injuries while they are in a latent phase and while the athlete does not complain any pain. Furthermore staging of the injury is possible and healing response can be controlled.