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Biomechanics of Sports Injuries

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Book cover The Biomechanics of Impact Injury

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Abstract

Sports-related injuries are rarely fatal but are very common. They are more common in contact sports, such as American football, but are also seen in non-contact sports, such as basketball and baseball. The knee is the most commonly injured body region in sports because the joint is not well protected by bony structures and is heavily used. However, catastrophic injuries can occur due to impacts to the head, neck, and chest. Examples of such injuries include fatal heart injuries in baseball, head injuries in football (soccer), baseball and basketball and knee injuries in jogging and tennis. The topics covered in this chapter are mild traumatic brain injury in American football, catastrophic neck injuries due to crown impacts, cardiac injuries due to sternal impacts, and knee injuries due to a lateral impact.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

    Albert I. King

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  1. Albert I. King
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Appendices

Questions for Chapter 19

  1. 19.1.

    In sports, the athlete can sustain a variety of injuries. Select the statement that is not true:

    1. [] (i)

      Athletes in contact sports are more at risk for injury than those in non-contact sports

    2. [] (ii)

      Non-contact sports athletes can also sustain serious injuries

    3. [] (iii)

      In American football, mild traumatic brain injury is quite common

    4. [] (iv)

      Baseball is a safe sport because it is a non-contact sport

    5. [] (v)

      The knee is the most frequently injured body part in sports

  2. 19.2.

    Mild traumatic brain injury is defined:

    1. [] (i)

      By a Glasgow Coma Score of 12 or higher

    2. [] (ii)

      By a period of unconsciousness not exceeding 20 min

    3. [] (iii)

      Hospitalization of less than 48 h

    4. [] (iv)

      All of the above

    5. [] (v)

      None of the above

  3. 19.3.

    Assessment of the severity of mild traumatic brain injury is done by

    1. [] (i)

      Putting the patient through a battery of neuropsychological tests

    2. [] (ii)

      Assessing eye-hand coordination if pre-injury test results are available

    3. [] (iii)

      Determining how irritable the patient is when confronted with an unpleasant situation

    4. [] (iv)

      (i) and (iii)

    5. [] (v)

      (i) and (ii)

  4. 19.4.

    The claim of a mild traumatic brain injury is difficult to refute because:

    1. [] (i)

      The patient can easily fake memory loss and irritability

    2. [] (ii)

      Symptoms of clinical depression are similar to those of a mild traumatic brain injury

    3. [] (iii)

      There is no quantitative method of measuring loss of cognitive function

    4. [] (iv)

      The patient can conveniently claim he/she does not recall the head impact, thus demonstrating post-traumatic amnesia

    5. [] (v)

      All of the above

  5. 19.5.

    A properly validated brain injury model can be used to aid in the assessment of the severity of a mild traumatic brain injury

    1. [] (i)

      It can be used to compute brain strain throughout the brain for an event of known impact severity

    2. [] (ii)

      Maximum strain levels can be associated with impact severity, such as linear and angular acceleration

    3. [] (iii)

      Maximum strain levels can be associated with clinical observations of symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury

    4. [] (iv)

      (i), (ii), and (iii)

    5. [] (v)

      None of the above

  6. 19.6.

    Disabling neck injuries occur in several forms of sports. In American football, horseback riding, and cycling, the predominant form of neck injury resulting in paralysis is:

    1. [] (i)

      Tension-extension

    2. [] (ii)

      Compression-extension

    3. [] (iii)

      Tension-flexion

    4. [] (iv)

      Compression-flexion

    5. [] (v)

      Axial rotation and lateral bending

  7. 19.7.

    Impacts to the chest by a high-speed projectile, such as a pitched or batted ball, can cause a fatal arrhythmia of the heart:

    1. [] (i)

      This is due to disruption of the conduction system in the heart

    2. [] (ii)

      This happens when the impact occurs just before the p-wave of the EKG cycle

    3. [] (iii)

      This cannot happen to adults

    4. [] (iv)

      This can be prevented by a catcher’s vest

    5. [] (v)

      The cause of the arrhythmia is well known

  8. 19.8.

    Impacts to the lateral aspect of the knee, while the leg is weight bearing, can result in:

    1. [] (i)

      Fracture of the patella

    2. [] (ii)

      Rupture of the posterior cruciate ligament

    3. [] (iii)

      Rupture of the medial collateral ligament

    4. [] (iv)

      Rupture of the lateral collateral ligament

    5. [] (v)

      Fracture of the tibia

  9. 19.9.

    Testing of the medial collateral ligament under impact conditions revealed that:

    1. [] (i)

      Its failure load ranged from 1000 to 2200 N

    2. [] (ii)

      The strain rates ranged from 170 to 370 %/second

    3. [] (iii)

      The load-deflection curves were rate dependent

    4. [] (iv)

      The stress-strain curves were not rate dependent

    5. [] (v)

      All of the above

  10. 19.10.

    When the chest is impacted by blunt high-speed objects, such as a baseball,

    1. [] (i)

      the heart can go into atrial fibrillation

    2. [] (ii)

      the blood pressure can rise rapidly

    3. [] (iii)

      the heart can go into ventricular fibrillation

    4. [] (iv)

      one of more chambers of the heart can be ruptured

    5. [] (v)

      the EKG remains normal

Answers to Problems by Chapter

Prob

Ans

1

(iv)

2

(iii)

3

(v)

4

(v)

5

(iv)

6

(iv)

7

(i)

8

(iii)

9

(v)

10

(iii)

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King, A.I. (2018). Biomechanics of Sports Injuries. In: The Biomechanics of Impact Injury. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49792-1_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49792-1_19

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-49790-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-49792-1

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