Overuse, sport specialization leads to increasing lumbar injuries in young athletes

http://www.healio.com/spine-surgery/lumbar/news/online/%7B735ac3b8-9573-4042-b0eb-6bd9cc332fb4%7D/overuse-sport-specialization-leads-to-increasing-lumbar-injuries-in-young-athletes

Overuse, sport specialization leads to increasing lumbar injuries in young athletes

• April 30, 2014

PHILADELPHIA — Year round participation in just one sport and overuse situations are causing a high number of stress fractures of the pars interarticularis in youth sports participants, a speaker at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting said.

“I’ll tell you personally as to what we’ve always done: we brace the kids. It is not because we think it is better, but because we think it is the only way to get the parents to lay off,” Hainline said. “That is really a problem. These kids are over specializing at such a young age and that is something that shouldn’t be happening.” – by Robert Linnehan

Reference:

Hainline B. Session #C82. Presented at: American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting; April 26-May 3, 2014; Philadelphia.

Disclosure: Hainline is a full-time employee of the NCAA and is a board member of several not-for-profit health/sport related organizations.