Playing sports or actively engaging in regular exercises, such as running or cycling, can cause athletic injuries. While we don’t wish to discourage healthy physical activity, care and caution are paramount when it comes to sports.
Let’s discuss the common characteristics of sports injuries and where you can go in Fairless Hills for outstanding athletic injury treatment.
Athletic Injuries Happen All the Time
In fact, they occur with children, teens, adults, and active seniors. Injuries sideline the best of us, whether due to an impact, fall, or simple overuse. Frequently occurring injuries are:
- Sprains, strains, and tears
- Joint dislocations
- Bone fractures
- Concussions
- Lacerations
- Bruising
These happen most often at the ankle, elbow, knee, shoulder, and foot. While many heal well with simple first aid treatments, including rest, others require assessment and treatment at an urgent care center.
Factors contributing to athletic injuries include:
- Poor conditioning (low cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength)
- Being overweight
- Poor hydration and nutrition
- Lack of proper protective equipment, including padding and shoes which fit well and are in good condition
- Failure to stretch, warm up, and cool down before and after workouts or a game
- Hard contact with another player, the ground or goalposts, nets, or equipment
- Changing direction quickly
- Overtraining (repetitive use injuries, such as plantar fasciitis, shin splints, and Achilles tendonitis
When symptoms persist, medical assessment becomes necessary to limit the injury’s extent, stabilize and/or correct it, and speed healing and rehabilitation.
What to Watch For: Three Common Characteristics of an Athletic Injury
The symptoms largely depend on the kind of injury and how severe it is. The common characteristics are:
- Pain (sudden or gradually increasing, generalized tenderness, sharp discomfort, or aching)
- Bruising and swelling related to the movement of fluids and blood to the injury site
- Drastically reduced function in terms of the range of motion, ability to bear weight on a lower extremity, or generalized weakness)
Besides these top three characteristics, some injuries produce:
- Deformity as in a fracture or joint dislocation
- Grinding or popping noises
- Site warmth
What You Should Do About an Athletic Injury
Call 911 or get to the nearest ER for loss of consciousness or profuse bleeding. Jaw dislocation or fracture is a medical emergency, too.
For other, less severe, musculoskeletal injuries, use the RICE first aid protocol, involving rest, ice to the affected part, compression and stabilization with an elastic bandage, and elevation of the extremity.
Getting The Help, You Need for Athletic Injuries in Fairless Hills, PA
If your symptoms persist or escalate but are not emergent, come to Patient Care Now Urgent Care in Fairless Hills. Our professional team, headed by board-certified emergency medicine physicians, will assess the injury and take X-rays as needed. Our on-site athletic injury services include suturing of lacerations, fluids for heat exhaustion, stabilization of sprains and fractures, referring to a hospital or specialist for advanced treatment.
We are open seven days a week year ‘round to serve all your injury and illness needs.
To learn more about us, phone (267) 202-6433. Simply come into our clinic, or check in online. Either way, we will serve you or your loved one immediately. Stay safe, and when you need us, we are here to help!
