Pediatrics News

The current standard of care treatment of first-time patellofemoral dislocations is nonoperative care. Often, patients are not seen by an orthopedic surgeon after their first instability episode. In the literature, the incidence of recurrent instability following the first episode is controversial; but skeletally immature patients are emerging as a high-risk group.

Data presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics Conference and Exhibition indicates female high school athletes have a higher risk of ACL tear per exposure than their male counterparts. This risk is higher still in female athletes who participate in basketball, soccer and lacrosse.

Football is one of the most popular sports played by young athletes in the United States. It also leads all other sports in the number of yearly injuries. In 2007, more than 920,000 athletes under 18 years of age were treated in the emergency room, doctor’s office and/or clinics for football-related injuries, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Some injuries are unavoidable. However, some can be prevented or at least minimized with certain precautions.

Novel cardiovascular disease risk factors improved in adolescents after 2 weeks of high-intensity interval training, according to data published in the American Journal of Physiology - Heart and Circulatory Physiology.

In a pre- and post-season ultrasound evaluation of high school pitchers’ elbows, adaptive changes occurred to multiple structures about the elbow from stresses placed on the elbow during one season of pitching, based on results of a recently published study.

SAN DIEGO — Although researchers of a prospective study presented here found high levels of function among children who underwent surgery for supracondylar humerus fractures, they noted poorer outcomes for pain and mobility in patients who had flexion pattern injuries compared with extension pattern injuries.

In the second part of this Orthopedics Today Round Table, I asked leaders in the field of pediatric orthopedics about what they perceive to be better patient care, how they envision clinical care changing in the future and the potential impact of subspecialization.

The growing anatomy of a pediatric patient with a complicated acute ankle fracture can lead to considerable complications if the fact that patient is still growing is not taken into consideration during treatment, according to a presenter at a recent meeting.

NEW ORLEANS — Karin M. Muraszko, MD, FACS, received the 2015 Distinguished Service Award during the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting, here. Muraszko is chairperson of neurosurgery at the University of Michigan.

Baseball is our American pastime and it has always been expected to be a safe and healthy sport. However since 2000, there has been a five- to seven-fold increase in youth baseball injuries. Injuries now have approached epidemic proportions. Moreover, many of the arm injuries of professional baseball pitchers have been documented to have had their origins at the youth level.