As more and more children participate in a single sport on a year-round basis, these young athletes are increasingly at risk for overuse injuries. Additionally, concussions have become a major cause for concern among youth sports participants. Both of these issues and others will be addressed at Stony Brook Orthopaedic Associate's first annual Sports Medicine Symposium on May 20.

The educational program includes a full day agenda of lectures and panel discussions, and breakout sessions by physicians and sports medicine experts from Stony Brook Orthopaedics, the clinical practice of the Department of Orthopaedics at Stony Brook University School of Medicine. Co-Directors of the symposium are James Penna, M.D., Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics and Residency Program Director, and James M. Paci, M.D., Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics.

The continuing medical education (CME) event is open to allied health care professionals. The symposium will be held at the Wang Center on the Stony Brook University Campus, from 7:45 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

While the majority of the program is intended largely for health care professionals, the concussion portion of the symposium which begins at 4:00 p.m. is also up for coaches, athletic directors and others involved in children's sports programs.

"We hope to provide health professionals with the necessary tools and information to detect orthopaedic overuse injuries, and how to manage and prevent them," says Dr. Paci. "We will specifically address the diagnosis and management of concussion, which is another growing concern among young athletes."

The overall theme for the symposium is the national STOP (Sports Trauma and Overuse Prevention) Sports Injuries campaign, which was started by the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) in 2007 to address the issue of overuse injuries in young athletes. "Many children have become more focused on one sport for example, playing on multiple baseball teams during the fall, spring and summer seasons, rather than the more traditional route of soccer in the fall, baseball in the spring, and swimming in the summer," notes Dr. Paci.

"Their young bodies aren't given a chance to rest and recover from repetitive motions, which are causing a growing epidemic of preventable sports injuries."

The Stony Brook symposium will also incorporate the ideas and initiatives of Safe Kids USA, a nationwide network of organizations working to prevent unintentional childhood injury.

Presentations at the symposium include: Upper Extremity Overuse Injuries, Lower Extremity Overuse Injuries, General Medical Considerations in Sports Medicine, and Concussion: How to Diagnose, Track and Treat. For more information on the symposium, including directions and specific lecture topics, see the Stony Brook Sports Symposium website.

Source: Stony Brook University Medical Center