Upper extremity injuries in young athletes

Injuries are becoming increasingly prevalent in pediatric athletes. Many of these injuries are diagnosed clinically and do not require imaging for diagnosis, but the sheer increase in numbers of injuries means that radiologists are evaluating more of them. Some injuries that young athletes sustain are simply due to trauma, such as falls, and may be experienced outside sports just as easily; however, others are peculiar to athletic activities. Many of the latter are chronic overuse injuries as opposed to acute injuries and have characteristic appearances. The types of injuries young athletes incur often change based on the stage of skeletal maturity of the patient, and it serves the radiologist well to keep in mind the typical appearances expected at different ages.