Among High School Athletes in 6 Seasons, 2.5 Million Basketball Injuries Found: Study

Athletic trainers can make the training system more efficient by only sending athletes to the hospital when necessary, though they cannot treat every injury, said Dr.McKenzie, who is also a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. The trainers can also help athletes return to play when it is safe. "We are there to prevent injuries, evaluate them quickly, treat them immediately and try our best to make sure that as we return them to play we do it in the most safe and efficient way possible," said Kerry Waple, ATC, certified athletic trainer in Sports Medicine at Nationwide Children's. "There are a lot of injuries that happen that are winding up in urgent cares and emergency departments that don't need to be there."

The Sports Medicine team at Nationwide Children's partners with 13 high schools across central Ohio and provides on-site certified athletic trainers for athletes during both practice and competition. The athletic trainers provide immediate triage, diagnosis and treatment to injured athletes and help them return to play safely and at the right time. In addition, Nationwide Children's Sports Medicine experts provide injury prevention techniques to high school and middle school athletes.

Data for this study were obtained from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), which is operated by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The NEISS database provides information on consumer product-related and sports- and recreation-related injuries treated in hospital emergency departments across the country. Data for this study were also obtained from the High School Reporting Information Online™ database.

Source-Eurekalert