Safety

A new research paper finds the overall rate of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries among high school athletes is significantly higher among females, who are especially likely to experience ACL tears while playing basketball, soccer and lacrosse.

Four years after the American Academy of Pediatrics adopted the recommended return-to-play (RTP) guidelines proposed by the Third International Conference on Concussion in Sport, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (CHA) has proposed sport-specific guidelines for ten sports known to put young athletes at the highest risk for concussion.

Nearly half of sports-related facial fractures among children occur in baseball and softball, says a new study in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, many of which could be prevented if players wore face shields while fielding.

There is good news and bad news on the youth sports injury front. The good news is that sports and recreation musculoskeletal injuries declined 12.4 percent in the U.S. over the past 10 years for children ages 5 to 14 years. The bad news: injuries in football and soccer went up, says a new study.

Most injuries in youth basketball are minor and can be treated with simple first-aid. Finger sprains are common, but ankle and knee injuries, especially in Grades 1 through 6, are not. Here's some basic first aid advice from a longtime coach.

Girls who play sports more than 8 hours per week are twice as likely as their less active peers to suffer a stress fracture, a new study finds. Most at risk were those engaged in three activities (running, basketball and cheerleading/gymnastics) which involve repeated jumping and landing which place particuarly high stress on bone, with the risk of injury increasing about 8 percent for each extra hour of activity over four per week.

Concussion rates in thirteen high school sports from 1998 to 2008, as reported in three separate studies, vary widely by sport and, in some cases, by gender.