Head Up!!

This past weekend, an Auburn football player, Zac Etheridge, was involved in a serious injury during the Auburn-Ole Miss football game. While attempting to tackle Ole Miss running back Rodney Scott, Etheridge and teammate Antonio Coleman met head on in the above picture. It is never a good idea to attempt and tackle someone with your head down (neck flexion), because it lines up all the vertebrae in the neck and if the force is great enough, a domino effect will occur, fracturing the vertebrae and possibly leading to paralysis. After watching the video in class, one of my students pointed out that Etheridge likely wasn't trying to hit Scott with his head, but Coleman came into the play after he left his feet, and by then he couldn't change direction. After this collison, Etheridge lay motionless on the turf on top of Scott, and the Auburn medical staff did a great job stabilizing his cervical spine and placing him on the spineboard. As an athletic trainer, you always suspect a player has a spine injury when they get hit in the head. The most remarkable part of the play was Scott, who did not move until Etheridge was stabilized and moved off of him. The actions of Scott may have saved Etheridge from permanent paralysis, because any type of movement before he was stabilized could have caused a serious spinal cord injury. I am happy to report that Etheridge did not sustain any permanent damage, he has sprained ligaments in his neck and did fracture cervical vertebrae five. He will have to wear a neck brace for 3-4 months and is expected to make a full recovery. If you would like to see the video, click on the link below. It occurs around the 26 mintue mark of the video.

Zac Etheridge injury

Are you kidding me?

Watch this clip. BYU-New Mexico Soccer Fight


Today in motor development, we were discussing gender typing in sports. We were discussing how soccer is now viewed as both a male and female sport, and one of the students asked me if I saw the fight during the BYU-New Mexico match last night. I had not seen it, so recognizing a great opportunity for discussion, we viewed the video in class. You have to watch this for yourself. I don't know how one person could
1) do all these things to other players and 2) get away with it. You would think by the fifth incident one of the officials would have noticed. I'm not sure which was worse, pulling the girl down by her hair, kicking the ball into another player's face, or punching a player in the face. Just an unbelievable demonstration of how NOT to play the game.

Update

I found the video at http://www.secdigitalnetwork.com/default.aspx. It occurs on the very last play of the 3rd quarter. You should be able to move the video ahead to that play.

Patellar dislocations

I was originally going to do a post on why people should not wear high heels, but I was watching the Tennessee-South Carolina game this past weekend and saw an injury I just had to blog about. The patella is a seasmoid bone that lies in the trochlear groove between the medial and lateral femoral condyles. It moves up and down as we flex and extend our knee, and rarely comes out of place. A non-contact patellar dislocation may occur with a violent twisting motion of the leg, while a contact disclocation occurs when some outside force knocks it out of the groove. Three Tennessee defenders were trying to tackle a South Carolina player near the sideline, when one of the Tennessee players hit the patella of his teammate and knocked it out of the trochlear groove, resulting in a patellar dislocation. The patealla was located on the lateral femoral condyle, and clearly could be seen during the telecast. I've tried to locate the video of the injury, but have not had any luck yet. A physician will relocate the patealla back into place by flexing the hip, and gently pushing the patealla medially as the knee is extended. The athlete will likely miss four to six weeks or possibly longer after this injury. Like all other dislocations, once the patella is disclocated, it is much more likely to occur again.

AC Sprain

I apologize for the delay between blog posts. It's been a hectic couple of weeks. Keeping with the theme of discussing current football injuries, I thought it would be good to talk about AC sprains. The acromioclavicular joint is the articulation between the distal end of the clavicle and the acromion process of the scapula. It is a critical link in proper functioning of the shoulder complex. Anytime you move your shoulder, the clavicle moves with it. The common term for an AC sprain is a "seperated" shoulder, because of the seperation that occurs between the two bones. This can be a very painful and debiliating injury, especially for a quaterback. This injury commonly occurs from falling on an outstretched hand, or by landing direclty on the joint. In Sam Bradford's case, he landed directly on the AC joint during the BYU game, and again this past weekend against Texas. Because the AC joint is very superficial, it is not easy to protect with padding. It is even harder for a quarterback to rehabilitate from this injury because of the throwing motion. Depending on the severity of the injury, players can be out anywhere from a few days to a few months, if surgery is required to repair the ligaments.

Fun Fact: The Coracoacromial ligament actually connects to the same bone, the acromion process and coracoid process of the scaupula. Almost all ligaments connect two different bones together.
Fun Fact 2: One way to test for damage to the AC joint is to press down on the clavicle. If the clavicle "pops up" more than the non-injured side, then the person may have an AC sprain. This popping up of the clavicle is referred to as the "piano key" sign.

To play or not to play

Unless you live in a cave, you have probably seen the hits that lead to Tim Tebow suffering a concussion two weeks ago against Kentucky. Tebow actually took two hits to the head on the play, the one pictured to the right, and another to the back of the head when he hit the leg of his own lineman. Tebow was knocked unconscious and spent the night in a Kentucky hospital. The raging debate this week is whether or not Tebow should play against LSU Saturday night. Many times, commentators refer to a concussion as someone having "their bell rung." Well, that does not really describe what a concussion is, and the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) discourages the use of words such as "ding" and "bell rung". According to Arnheim and Prentice, a concussion, also know as a traumatic brain injury (TBI), is defined as "a clinical syndrome characterized by immediate and transient posttraumatic impairment of neural functions-such as alterations of consciousness, disturbance of vision, loss of equillibrium, etc., due to brain stem involvement." The majority of concussions do not involve loss of consciousness, but Tebow's did. Now, Tebow will undergo numerous tests to measure his cognitive function, equillibrium, physchological function, etc., to determine if he can play. These scores will be compared to baseline scores taken before the season started. If he passes all these tests and scans of his brain come back normal, he will likely be cleared to play. I do believe the medical staff at Florida will not clear him to play unless he passes all of these tests. The next question is, should he play, even if he is cleared? While there has been some good research done on concussions, the long term affects are still unknown. It will be a tough decision, and one I am glad I don't have to make.

Motor Milestones

We have been discussing recently different motor milestones and how infants progress through these milestones. For example, an infant must first be able to hold his or head up before they can crawl, and he or she must be able to stand without support before they can walk. There is an average age range that most infants reach these milestones by. We must remember, however, that these are just average ranges. I think sometimes we place too much emphasis on "Is my child normal?" We have to remember that these average ages are just that, averages. That means some children will reach these milestones faster and some slower than others. Does that mean there is something wrong with the child? Not necessarily. The average walking age is around 12 months. But, some children will begin walking as early as 9 months, and some will not walk until 15 months. The other thing to consider is that the individual constraints of the infant interact with the environment and task to influence how and when we move. So, an infant that has developed the appropriate muscular strength and is frequently placed in an environment that encourages her to walk will more than likely begin walking sooner than a child not placed in that environment.