Includes References and Index

The present focus of the medical profession and of physiotherapy in sports
medicine is to treat sports injuries and overload syndromes due to sports. In
sports medicine, usually surgical and rehabilitation issues are handled.
According to the European Association for Injury Prevention and Safety
Promotion (EuroSafe), about 6.1 million people in Europe are treated in hospitals for a sports injury annually. About 420,000 of these cases have to be
admitted for further treatment. The estimated number of hospital-treated
sports injuries is 2.5 million in team ball sports, followed by 500,000 cases in
ice or snow sports and the same number in acrobatic sports. Sixty per cent of
sports injuries result from participation in organised sports. The number of
sports injuries is increasing, probably due to increased participation in sports
(EuroSafe, Injuries in the European Union, Report on injury statistics 2008–
2010, Amsterdam, 2013, ISBN: 978-90-6788-464-8).
Medical treatment due to overload in sports currently lacks statistical analysis.
Overload frequently results in a need for medical treatment or leads to injury.
Very popular sports such as football and alpine skiing are particularly relevant because of the injury frequency. The treatment costs are socioeconomically important.
Individual suffering and remaining disabilities after injury are a tragic
aspect. Athlete downtime in competitive sports weakens the teams and affects
athletes’ careers.
It is therefore important to consider prevention more carefully in the
future. The Sports Committee of ESSKA has set itself the task to discuss and
to describe the main aspects of prevention. Prevention of injury and overuse
in sports is not exclusively in the competence of physicians and physiotherapists. Therefore, the Sports Committee has partnered with a large group of
experienced sports scientists, physiotherapists with experience in highperformance sports and coaches from high-performance sports to deliver this
book on the prevention of injury and overuse in sports. This book cannot definitely answer all the questions on prevention. However, it should pave the
way in cooperative prevention research as a directory for physicians, sports
scientists and physiotherapist coaches.
The authors hope to provide help in the prevention of injuries and overuse
in sports with this book