All Articles by Lindsey Barton Straus, JD

There are more than 100,000 sports-related eye injuries every year with 42,000 requiring emergency care.  90 percent of those injuries could be prevented just by wearing the proper eye protection. Why, then, do only 15 percent of children consistently wear the recommended protective eyewear?

The risk of severe injury in high school soccer is less than half that in football, a new study finds.

New research confirms that high school football players are at the highest risk of severe injury, accounting for almost 4 in 10 of the injuries reported in the 9 sports studied.

Which high school sports pose the highest risk of severe injury?  Football leads the list, slightly more than wrestling and more than twice the rate in girls' basketball and girls' soccer.  The safest of the nine studied? Girls volleyball.

Mouth guards shold be replaced every 14 days, or earlier if they develop sharp or jagged edges, because they can cause mouth cuts and abrasions which expose an athlete to an increased risk of bacterial, yeast and fungal infection.

Sudden deaths due to ill-timed blows to the chest (commotio cordis) are more common in the nation's fastest growing sport, lacrosse, than in any other sport, according to a new study in the September 2009 journal, Pediatrics.

A new study provides strong evidence that a young athlete delaying reconstructive surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is at increased risk of irreparable knee damage. Early reconstruction of the ACL before any other damage to the knee gives a child the best chance of a good outcome in the future.  Once other structures in the knee are damaged, the final outcome may not be as good, no matter what the surgeon does at the time of reconstruction.

Concussion experts agree that the taking of a detailed concussion history is important for the treatment of concussion after injury and to identify at-risk athletes during a pre-participation physical evaluation or examination (PPE).

After the initial sideline assessment, an athlete with a suspected concussion should not be left alone, should be monitored for deteriorating mental status over the next few hours, and should be further evaluated in a hospital emergency room or doctor's office.