Concise Guide to Sports Injuries (2nd Edition)

Concise Guide to Sports Injuries (2nd Edition)

Malcolm T.F. Read
London, UK
Churchill Livingstone, 2008
380 pages

Consideration for differential diagnoses is an essential practice of primary healthcare professionals and the field of sport medicine applies the principles of primary healthcare to athletic training, development, and competition. Concise Guide to Sports Injuries (2nd Ed.) by Read is handy tool for professionals interested in the management of sports injuries.

Concise Guide is organized into 21 chapters and is arranged by the anatomical region of pain and dysfunction. The preface is an introduction to this book but also doubles as an instruction manual for its use. The beginning of each chapter includes map-like diagrams to introduce the reader to the potential differential diagnoses for that region. For each particular injury and disease, Read includes the general findings of the history and physical examination, possible etiological causes, pertinent investigations (diagnostic imaging) necessary for diagnoses, and potential treatment strategies. Each section also includes a “comments” section where the author contributes with input based on his experience in practice.

The last two chapters of this book pertain to “Rehabilitation and training with an injury” and “Team doctoring”. The rehabilitation chapter transitions from the general principles of rehabilitation, through the various stages and types of rehabilitation, and into “Rehabilitation Ladders”, general and sport-specific templates that can be used to progress athletes back into sport. Read’s team doctor chapter introduces those medical professionals who may have the responsibility to travel with teams to some of the physiological and practical problems that he or she might be faced with. Topics ranging from altitude sickness to haemoglobinuria and treatment under exemption (TUE) are covered in this chapter.

Perhaps the most valuable component of this text is the glossary. This expanded reference section is easily accessible, and provides the reader with a brief explanation, or the “how, what, and why” of each orthopaedic test, sport injury, and physical disease mentioned. Readers will often find themselves referring to this section for a greater understanding of the content of this dynamic text.
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This book is a follow up to Read’s 1st edition (2000) and is a practical guide for the doctor or rehabilitation specialist working on the field or in a sports oriented clinic. Unfortunately, certain topics (concussions and low back rehabilitation) included management protocols with outdated references, considering the contributions made to the literature in recent years. Although, it may not be used as a textbook of sports medicine, Concise Guide can be a rather easily accessible reference text for the variety of problems faced by medical professionals in sport.

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