Sports injuries and adolescent athletes

A one-year study was undertaken investigating adolescent sports injury experiences at a major sports clinic in the state of Delaware. A total of 619 athletes sustained 870 injuries, for an overall injury rate of 1.4 injuries per athlete. The largest number of injuries was recorded in football (40.2 percent), followed by boys' soccer, wrestling, baseball and girls' basketball. Severity of injury was measured by the number of days lost per injury. Cheerleading had the highest average days lost per injury (28.8), followed by girls' basketball, wrestling, boys' cross-country and girls' tennis. Inflammation, fractures and dislocations comprised 50.6 percent of all the injuries, while 50.5 percent of the injuries were located in the knee, thigh, and shoulder. Twenty-seven of the 870 injuries required surgery.