Sports, instructions not to "break", from 10 to 16 years

By Dr. Corrado Bait - Specialist in Orthopedics and Traumatology

Sport is good, you know. It improves coordination, muscle tone, is good for the cardiovascular system and is useful for self-esteem and good humor. But often (and even more in the 10 to 16 age group) those who do sports end up getting hurt.

Sprains, injuries to the cruciate ligament of the knee and to end damage to the meniscus are "troubles" on the agenda for teams of teenagers of different specialties, from football to volleyball, through basketball and "the unsuspected" rhythmic gymnastics.

"The sharp increase in sports injuries among children - underlines Corrado Bait, head of the Operative Unit of Knee Surgery and Sports Traumatology at the Humanitas Clinical Institute and a member of the specialized Physioclinic center in Milan - is a totally new fact and it is certainly to relate to the ways in which sport is practiced today ". That is, in a nutshell, with a little too much competition.

And, sometimes, even with a little sense of reality, that same sense of reality that leads parents to objectively evaluate, from a physical point of view, their child. Bait also says: "Who has the knees vare, that is to" O ", like who has the knees valghe, that is to" X ", hardly will become a sample and the same is true for those who suffer from scoliosis. In all these cases, it is it is better not to generate exaggerated expectations in children, but simply to send them to a useful and enjoyable physical activity, so as to have only the good of the sport, without generating disappointments and frustrations ". Still, those who do not have the physical characteristics to become a champion, have no reason to follow intense training (think of 3-4 training sessions a week, plus 1 or 2 games on weekends) required of those who ... can try.

Attention therefore to the choice of the gym, the instructors, the sports club. "The ideal team is the one that intends the sport of being together and having fun".

The most frequent injuries

Although lived in a common sense, even among teenagers, sport can cause injuries and fractures. "The most frequent incidents, in increasing order of severity, are the injury to the medial collateral ligament of the knee, the meniscus and then to the anterior cruciate ligament. In the first case, the intervention is not necessary, because the ligament heals on its own, with 2-3 weeks of rest For the meniscus the evaluation of the individual case is fundamental, since the broken meniscus can either be sutured or eliminated, even if in general the most conservative choices are always to be preferred. lesion of the cruciate ligament, it is usually necessary to work Fortunately, thanks to the young age and therefore to the extremely "active" biology, the recovery times are generally shorter than in adults even if there is always the strong risk of recurrences for the teenagers tend not to "spare" themselves.