Athletic injuries to the elbow, forearm, wrist and hand

Abstract

LTHOUGH competitive sports produce more A major injuries to the lower extremity, a sufficient number of injuries to the upper extremity do occur to make a thorough review of their recognition and management worthwhiIe. Furthermore, since most of these injuries involve one of the major joints, such as the elbow or the wrist, inadequate treatment wiI1 often Iead to permanent disability. A number of factors are present which determine the type of injury sustained. Such factors are: the type of game (e.g., footbalI, basebalI, wrestling), experience and conditioning of the players, the type of forces applied to the extremity and the age of the pIayer. Since the vast majority of college athletes are beyond the age of epiphyseal closure, it is obvious that epiphyseal injuries are rarely seen in the colIege group, whereas, they are common in the junior high school and high school group. Baseball produces frequent injuries to the fingers and thumb, while football and wres-