Rehabilitation of Sports Injuries: Current Concepts

Over the last few years, in the field of sports science and medicine, empirical theories about the treatment and rehabilitation of injured athletes have been gradually sup­ ported by a rapid growth of research data and scientific literature. This has permit­ ted a better knowledge of the healing process from injury and/or surgery, and a more appropriate understanding of the biomechanical behavior of several biological structures to load and exercise. We agree with the opinion that development and advancement through a rehabil­ itation program should be based on the type and severity of the lesion, healing time of the injured structures, individual pain tolerance level, possible adopted surgical procedure, and sport-specific biomechanical demands. Currently, the most re cent theories on rehabilitation of the injured athlete em­ phasize the concepts of a multidisciplinary approach, a functional recovery instead of symptomatic improvement, and an early mobilization with the implementation of an individualized program treating the entire body kinetic chains. Among different methods of rehabilitation, the physician should choose those re­ vealing their clinical appropriateness, founded on a validated scientific data and/or proven clinical efficacy. Our goal has been to provide a comprehensive coverage of principles and practi­ cal applications of the rehabilitation methods of the most common sports injuries, and we have tried to combine the variety of expertise and backgrounds of a multidis­ ciplinary group of contributing authors.