Primus Super Specialty Hospital

Sports Medicine is an umbrella term that encompasses many different areas of professional specialization, all of which are in same way related to either enhancing athletic performance or caring for the injured athlete. Exercise physiologists, Biomechanist, Nutritionists, Sports Physiologists, Strength and conditioning coach, nurses, physicians, physician assistants, athletic trainers and physical therapists can all legitimately claim to be specialists in Sports Medicine.

Certainly each of these areas of specialization can make a significant contribution to getting athletes fit for competition, helping them perform to their maximum potential, and guiding them back to competitive levels following injury.

It is essential for all Sports Medicine professionals to realize that a team approach, which takes maximum advantage of the collective knowledge, talent, and expertise of all specialists in a collaborative effort, affords the athlete the optimal conditions for successful performance.

The field of Sports Medicine is still in its infancy relative to many other well-established fields in health care. Proper rehabilitation of athletic injures requires:

Immediate and accurate initial Diagnosis of the nature and severity of the injury with specific tissues involved.

Immediate initiation of appropriate treatment directed toward moderating the secondary effects of the inflammatory reaction.

An ordered sequence of rehabilitation, including exercises, progressive in nature, to enhance healing of soft tissue structures.

Integration of functional activities to assist in the restoration of coordinated movement patterns.

The completion of Sports specific activities with confidence and bodily control.

Sports Physiotherapy

Sports Physiotherapist: A Definition

A sports physiotherapist is a recognized professional who demonstrates advanced competencies in the promotion of safe physical activity participation, provision of advice, and adaptation of rehabilitation and training interventions, for the purposes of preventing injury, restoring optimal function, and contributing to the enhancement of sports performance, in athletes of all ages and abilities, while ensuring a high standard of professional and ethical practice.

Sports Physiotherapist: A Description

Sports physiotherapists are professionals who aspire to work at master's level. Sports physiotherapists work with athletes of all ages and abilities, at individual and group levels, to prevent injury, restore optimal function and contribute to the enhancement of sports performance, using sports-specific knowledge, skills and attitudes to achieve best clinical practice.

Sports physiotherapists are pioneers in t heir field, critically challenging and evaluating practice, developing new knowledge through research, and disseminating this understanding to initiate changes in practice.

In their role as a professional leader, sports physiotherapists influence their professional and multidisciplinary cultures by keeping up to date with new innovations, incorporating them into education, and creating a professional environment that enables the implantation of best practice. They aim to promote safe participation in physical activity, and the sports physiotherapy profession, to the wider community and facilitate international mobility of therapists through education and practice.

Role of Sports Physiotherapists:

Prevention of Injury.

Injury evaluation and management.

Management Techniques.

Prevention of Injury:

As we all know the age old Philosophy in Medicine "Prevention is better than cure", same does apply in Sports Medicine too. The Levels of Prevention:

(a) Primary Prevention:

 

Refers to specific strategies that are used to prevent injury or illness occurring.

The implementation of rules to avoid harmful tackling techniques and use proper guidelines for protective wears.

 

(b) Secondary Prevention:
  1. Early detection of injury.
  2. The prevention of the progression of the extent or severity of injury.
  3. The prevention of development of any complications.
  4. The prevention of the severity and amount of disability.
  5. Prompt administration of appropriate therapy.
(c) Tertiary Prevention:
  1. Restoration of functions.
  2. Prevention of recurrence by the administration of appropriate rehabilitation programs.
  3. Implementation of Specific preventive measures.

Injury evaluation and management:

(a) Sporting emergencies. Falls under three categories:
  1. Trauma to a previously well athlete, e.g. Head injury, chest or abdominal injury, spinal injury.
  2. Aggravation of a previously recognized medical problem e.g.: asthma, diabetes.
  3. Presentation of a previously unrecognized medical problem, e.g.: asymptomatic heart disease
(b) Assessment:
  1. Pre-season assessment.
  2. On-field assessment.
  3. Detailed clinical assessment.
  4. Reassessment at various stages of rehabilitation and improvement.
(c) Evaluation and Management Techniques: Fitness Testing.
  1. Aerobic and anaerobic fitness.
  2. Strength testing.
  3. Body composition analysis.
  4. Flexibility.
  5. Medical fitness
    1. Vitals                                Blood
    2. Up ArrowPathology
    3. Down ArrowECG                           Urine

Manual Therapy:

It includes passive mobilization and manipulation of spinal and peripheral joints, muscle energy technique, passive stretching of contractile tissues, manual muscle relaxation techniques, myofascial relase, mobilization of the nervous system, massage 1. Currently, Maitland and Mulligan concepts of manual therapy are widely practiced worldwide and among Indian Physiotherapists due to its clinically significant results.

Therapeutic exercise:

Therapeutic exercise is essential is the rehabilitation of Sporting injuries to assure that a Sport person is able to continue with Sports at any level.
Classified into the use of exercise to improve strength (resistance training), range of movement (stretching and mobilizing exercises), balance and coordination (proprioceptive training) and finally sporting performance (functional exercise or skill drills).

Special Programs:

  1. Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation technique.
  2. Kinetic chain exercise.
  3. Flexibility and stretching exercise.
  4. Passive stretching.
  5. Neuromeningeal stretching.
  6. Mobilizing exercises.
  7. Proprioception exercises.
  8. Functional activities.

Massage:

Massage is a delightful sensation (in most cases) can have a soothing or stimulatory effect, promote increased flexibility and elasticity in the skin and underlying tissues. Massage is best combined with other techniques and modalities such as stretching, passive and active movements, ice, heat, electrical stimulation and hydrotherapy.
Massage involves direct manual manipulation of the soft tissues of the body and has an important role to play in the prevention of injuries. It can be used to
  1. Promote efficient scar formation
  2. Reduce muscle tension
  3. Reduce excessive adhesion and scar formation
  4. Reduce pain
  5. Reduce muscle spasm
  6. Promote healing by increasing blood flow
  7. Help recovery after exercise by promoting lymphatic drainage
  8. Reduce swelling
  9. Deactivate trigger points.

Electrotherapy

A large number of different electrotherapeutic modalities are available for the treatment of injuries, and the extent of their use varies widely between therapists. The modalities most often used are Laser, Ultrasound, Interferential, TENS, Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES), and Short Wave Diathermy. The effect of the treatment depends on modality and its parameter settings. Electrotherapy is often used to
  1. Reduce pain
  2. Increase blood flow
  3. Reduce inflammation
  4. Promote healing
  5. Reduce muscle spasm
  6. Muscle stimulation
Encompasses various thermal, electrical, mechanical, and magnetic and biofeedback devices such as:
  1. Laser
  2. Traction
  3. Shortwave Diathermy
  4. Microwave Diathermy
  5. Ultrasound
  6. Interferential Therapy
  7. Electrical Muscle Stimulator
  8. TENS
  9. Wax bath
  10. Hot Packs & Cold Packs.

Hydrotherapy

Most disorders of the locomotors systems (joints & muscle) can be treated in the hydrotherapy pool. It is one of the important medium in maintaining fitness as well as treatment of specific injuries.
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