Injuries in the Greek epics of Homer

Trauma and the need of medical care exist since the beginning of human history. This research is aimed to identify and analyze trauma in antiquity. After a review of bibliography, the first reports of trauma (in Europe) were found in the Greek Epics of Homer. The analysis of these texts showed that injury could be caused to any part of the human body. The main cause of trauma was primarily participation in wars (178 cases), and then participation in sports (6 cases) and other activities (6 cases). This study identified a total of 190 injuries in both Homer epics. The more serious injuries, many of which proved fatal, were observed from participation in military activities.

Horse-riding accidents and injuries in historical records of Joseon Dynasty, Korea

Only a few osteological reports describe bone injuries thought to have been caused by falls from horses. Nevertheless, anthropological study alone is insufficient for establishing the correlates of such equestrian accidents. We therefore reviewed the records in Seungjeongwon ilgi (Diaries of the Royal Secretariat) and Joseon wangjo silrok (Annals of the Joseon Dynasty) of the Korea's Joseon period (1392-1910 CE). Although the mechanisms of trauma were diverse, the Joseon documents recorded many injuries caused by horse-riding accidents. During 1625-1872 CE, equestrian-related accidents occurred almost every year, overwhelming other causes of trauma. In all horse-riding accidents (n=142), 37.77% of the records offer detailed data about the traumatic mechanism. Injuries occurred most frequently to the extremities (79.58%), which were followed by the trunk (34.5%) and head (4.92%). Although we do not think that this attempt can explain every paleopathological case, our historical review shows that equestrian-related injuries could be considered as one of the major causes for the bone trauma observed among ancient equestrian people.

Epidemiology and history of knee injury and its impact on activity limitation among football premier league professional referees

BACKGROUND

The purpose of this study was to determine the epidemiology and history of knee injury and its impact on activity limitation among football premier league professional referees in Iran.

METHODS

This was a descriptive study. 59 Football Premier League professional referees participated in the study. The knee injury related information such as injury history and mechanism was recorded. Injury related symptoms and their impacts on the activity limitation, ability to perform activities of daily living as well participation in sports and recreational activities was obtained through the Knee Outcome Survey (KOS).

RESULTS

The results indicated that 31 out of 59 participants reported the history of knee injury. In addition, 18.6%, 22.4% and 81% of the referees reported that they had been injured during the last 6 months of the last year, and at some point in their refereeing careers, respectively. Results further indicated that 48.8% of the injuries occurred in the non-dominant leg and they occurred more frequently during training sessions (52%). Furthermore, the value of KOS was 85 ± 13 for Activities of Daily Living subscale and 90 ± 9 for Sports and Recreational Activities subscale of the KOS.

CONCLUSIONS

Knee injury was quite common among the Football Premier League professional referees. It was also indicated that the injuries occurred mainly due to insufficient physical fitness. Therefore, it is suggested that football referees undergo the proper warm-up program to avoid knee injury.

Daredevils and early birds: Belgian pioneers in automobile racing and aerial sports during the belle époque

During the belle époque, Belgium was a trend-setting nation in many domains, including motorised sports. Belgian automobile racers and pilots shattered world records and became international stars. Striking was the shift in sports. Indeed, around 1896, sporting members of the leisure class stepped from the bicycle into the automobile and, around 1908, from the automobile into the airplane. Although these motorised sports were extremely expensive, this article shows that sportsmen and sportswomen from the working class could achieve upward social mobility through their performances. The achievements of these motorised pioneers had a major impact and wide-ranging significance. They laid the foundations for the expansion of the automobile industry and the emergence of civilian and military aviation.

Motor sport in France: testing-ground for the world

The birth of the automobile in the late nineteenth century was greeted with a mixture of awe, scepticism and sometimes even disdain from sections of the European public. In this article, the steps taken in France to pioneer and promote this new invention are examined. Unreliable and noisy, the early automobile owes a debt of gratitude to the French aristocracy who organised and codified motor racing in an effort to test these new inventions while at the same time introduce them to a wider public. City-to-city races demonstrated the potential of the automobile before the initiative of Gordon Bennett proved to be the catalyst for the birth of international motor sport as we recognise it today. Finally this article looks at the special connection between Le Mans and the automobile. Le Mans has, through its 24-hour race, maintained a strong link with the development of everyday automobile tourism and offers the enthusiast an alternative to the machines that reach incredible speeds on modern-day closed circuits. This article examines how French roads were veritable testing grounds for the earliest cars and how the public roads of Le Mans maintain the tradition to this day.

The civilizing and sportization of Gaelic football in Ireland: 1884–2009

Over the course of the last 125 years the sport of Gaelic football in Ireland has undergone a sportization and civilizing process as the rules governing the sport became stricter and players developed greater levels of self-control. However, the civilizing of Gaelic football was a particularly fragile and uneven process. The growing social desire to diminish displays of violence was moderated by ambivalence towards violence. Gradually the external social controls on players increased and, greater and more stable levels of internalization occurred reflected by more advanced levels of player self-restraint in the control of violence. At the same time the threshold of shame toward displays of violence advanced. This transformation was shaped by lengthening chains of social interdependencies in Ireland.

[Noblemen injured in fights and jousts in the field of tension between honour and ability]

Oliver Auge shows in this article that, in the late Middle Ages, the consequences of invalidity due to fighting and jousts ranged between exclusion and appreciation--a similar pattern to what can be observed in the ancient Roman Republic. As the majority of medieval sources do not provide any information concerning this topic, Auge concludes that affected nobles were either seen as disturbing elements within the society or they even regarded themselves as such. But they met with social approval as soon as they explicitly identified themselves as former participants of wars or jousts that had caused their invalidity or if their performance was above the norm. A remarkable amount of evidence for this phenomenon appeared around the year 1500 leading the author to conclude that the view of disability gradually changed with the transition from Middle Ages to Modernity. Examples like that of Götz of Berlichingen's iron hand or the striking profile of the often portrayed Federico da Montefeltro, on the other hand, show that physical integrity was still the standard.

[On the death of Gabriel Cano de Aponte]

Gabriel Cano de Aponte was Governor of Chile since 1717 and until his death in 1733, being 68 years old. As a soldier, he was an experienced horse rider. The sequence of events that caused his death three months after an equestrian accident is unclear. A systematic clinical analysis of the latter is the main objective of this review. Historians have documented Cano de Aponte's "inclination for unbridled fun and equestrian exercises". During a holiday Cano de Aponte suffered a horse fall and subsequent crushing by the latter. It has been stated that a spinal lesion caused by the accident kept him bedridden for a period of three months, clear in reason and with intense pain, before his death. However, there is no evidence on historic data that conveys any typical sign associated with spinal injury following the accident. Therefore we suggest that Cano de Aponte suffered a complex pelvic ring fracture. The fact that he was prostrated, lucid, but suffered an intense pain best sustains the hypothesis of a pelvic fracture. After the initial period, one of the most common causes of death resulting from a pelvic fracture is deep venous thrombosis with secondary pulmonary thromboembolism. This must have been the sequence of events that most probably caused Cano de Aponte's death.

An Ancient Greek Pain Remedy for Athletes

While Hippocratic writings make no reference to the actual Olympics, there is frequent mention of diet, exercise, and the treatment of injuries sustained by the athletic participants. Indeed, Galen in his Composition of Medicines gives details of a remedy prescribed for the relief of pains and swellings, which was reserved for use by the winners of Olympic events, the so-called "Fuscum Olympionico inscriptum"--(ointment) entitled "dark Olympic victor's." In a time when the Olympic games have recently returned to their homeland, we examine the potential efficacy of this ancient remedy in terms of pain relief, the novelty of transdermal pain management, and the ability of ancient physicians to attend to the sports-related needs of highly tuned athletes.

Fatal Chest Injury with Lung Evisceration during Athletic Games in Ancient Greece

The "Olympic idealism" that dominates modern athletic culture is a myth. The true aims of the athletes in ancient Greece were rewards and life-long appointments to various positions in the military or the city administration. Competitions in the athletic games included, among others, wrestling, boxing, and pangration (a combination of wrestling and boxing). Occasionally, these games resulted in severe trauma or death. Two cases of extreme violence resulting in fatal chest trauma are presented and commented on from both surgical and social points of view.

Birth and Evolution of the Football Helmet

OBJECTIVE

To review the advent and evolution of the football helmet through historical, physiological, and biomechanical analysis.

METHODS

We obtained data from a thorough review of the literature.

RESULTS

Significant correlation exists between head injuries and the advent of the football helmet in 1896, through its evolution in the early to mid-1900s, and regulatory standards for both helmet use and design and tackling rules and regulations. With the implementation of National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment standards, fatalities decreased by 74% and serious head injuries decreased from 4.25 per 100,000 to 0.68 per 100,000. Not only is the material used important, but the protective design also proves essential in head injury prevention. Competition among leading helmet manufacturers has benefited the ultimate goal of injury prevention. However, just as significant in decreasing the incidence and severity of head injury is the implementation of newer rules and regulations in teaching, coaching, and governing tackling techniques.

CONCLUSION

Helmet use in conjunction with more stringent head injury guidelines and rules has had a tremendous impact in decreasing head injury severity in football. Modifications of current testing models may further improve helmet design and hence further decrease the incidence and severity of head injury sustained while playing football.

The impact of the 21st century on rugby injuries

STUDY DESIGN

This is a review article concerning rugby injuries resulting in tetraplegia between the years of 1965 and 2000. It is based on a review of worldwide literature.

OBJECTIVES

The objective is to evaluate research that has taken place in the last 10 years.

SETTING

The author first became interested in this problem in 1965 when there were few papers on the subject. Understanding of these injuries has changed decade by decade and the number of spinal injuries has increased dramatically. For the first three decades the author was actively engaged in gathering material particularly at the National Spinal Injuries Centre. During the last 10 years there has been a greater understanding in the mechanism of these injuries.

METHODS

The following subjects were reviewed in the literature: (1). mechanism of injury; (2). the diameter of the spinal canal; (3). arthritis; (4). treatment; (5). fitness and (6). medico-legal aspects.

RESULTS

These injuries are no longer regarded as an Act of God or bad luck but mechanisms of injury have been clearly defined.

CONCLUSION

To prevent these injuries occurring there is a need for: (1). better statistics; (2). enforcement of the laws; (3). improved standards of refereeing; (4). higher standards of fitness and training in particular to de-power the set scrum; (5). study of the cervical spine to look for abnormalities which would predispose the player to tetraplegia; (6). the use of MRI and CT scans to monitor the spinal cord anatomy; (7). the importance of pathology and the status of the cervical spine; (8). the awareness of the dangers to the cord of congenital and acquired abnormalities that could prejudice spinal cord function and (9). the awareness of the necessity for comprehensive insurance.

The death of Henry II of France: A sporting death and post-mortem

In 1559 Henry II King of France was wounded in a tournament and died. A broken lance entered his right orbit, destroying his eye and leaving behind many splinters. The skull was not penetrated but infection spread intracranially. Both Ambroise Paré and Vesalius saw him and predicted death. Nine days after wounding, both attended the King's post-mortem. The story shows how difficult life was without antisepsis, anaesthesia, antibiotics or investigations. The King's stubbornness highlights the dangers of continuing to play after concussion.

"Mended or ended?" Football injuries and the British and American medical press, 1870-1910

'Playing Hurt/Playing Tough', a dominant ideology in today's football (soccer, rugby, American 'gridiron'), is by no means new. Many books, monographs, and articles have examined the historical development of these games, but the attention given to them in the medical press during the late 1800s/early 1900s has been overlooked. The Lancet, Journal of the American Medical Association, and other turn-of-the-century medical publications regularly included accounts and descriptions of injuries and deaths. More telling were the many editorials in which physicians in both Britain and the United States expressed enthusiasm while also lamenting the games' physical and morale effects upon players, asking whether 'football' should be mended or ended.

High-protein diets, "damaged hearts," and rowing men: antecedents of modern sports medicine and exercise science, 1867-1928

There are many criteria by which advances in "sports medicine" and "exercise science" may be assessed. Historical developments in the basic and applied sciences--and in clinical practices, as well--may best be explored by those who are experts in particular fields. It is encouraging that more studies of this type have begun to appear. Studies of the evolution of organizations that have fostered various aspects of physical training, exercise science, and sports medicine may provide another useful approach. Whereas 910 individuals participated in the 1976 ACSM Annual Meeting, in 1992, attendance reached 3661. In 1954 (the year the American College of Sports Medicine was organized), Index Medicus listed approximately 250 items under the headings Athletics, Exercise, and Physical Education. In 1993, some 4000 citations were reported as being about Athletics, Exercise, Physical Fitness, Exercise-Related Physical Therapy, and Sports Medicine. According to the Congress Proceedings of the Third IOC World Congress on Sport Sciences (September 16-22, 1995), 225 individuals made presentations. More than 1650 women and men representing a vast array of contributing fields participated in symposia, lectures, and poster sessions during "Physical Activity, Sport, and Health"--The 1996 International Pre-Olympic Scientific Congress (July 10th-14th). What advances await in the 21st century?

Head injuries in sport

Injuries to the head and neck are the most frequent catastrophic sports injury, and head injuries are the most common direct athletic cause of death. Although direct compressive forces may injure the brain, neural tissue is particularly susceptible to injury from shearing stresses, which are most likely to occur when rotational forces are applied to the head. The most common athletic head injury is concussion, which may very widely in severity. Intracranial haemorrhage is the leading cause of head injury death in sports, making rapid initial assessment and appropriate follow up mandatory after a head injury. Diffuse cerebral swelling is another serious condition that may be found in the child or adolescent athlete, and the second impact syndrome is a major concern in adult athletes. Many head injuries in athletes are the result of improper playing techniques and can be reduced by teaching proper skills and enforcing safety promoting rules. Improved conditioning (particularly of the neck), protective headgear, and careful medical supervision of athletes will also minimise this type of injury.

The philosophy of sports medicine care: an historical review

Sports medicine might seem a trendy, market driven health care arena serving to promote the welfare of elite athletes and those who care for them. But a closer look reveals a much older ancestral tree with roots at the very onset of recorded medicine and branches that intertwine with every aspect of today's medical treatment. Indeed, the growth of modern sports medicine practice is a complex interwoven chronicle. In the context of an evolving medical understanding of tissue biology and wound repair, advances in scientific technology, and the growth of cellular pathology, mankind's relentless pursuit of sports-play, competition, and health has fueled the rationale of the present sports medicine philosophy of care.

A historical perspective of injuries in professional football. Twenty-six years of game-related events

A professional football franchise was studied consecutively from 1960 through 1985 for injuries incurred during regular-season games. A "significant" injury was defined as one requiring the player to miss at least two consecutive games (N = 331) and a "major" injury as one that caused the player to miss at least eight games or the equivalent time (N = 130). Significant injuries averaged 0.89 per game and major injuries 0.35 per game for the entire 26 years. Following a high injury rate prior to 1965, significant injury rates were episodic. Major injuries declined (rs = -.68; P less than .01). Since the team's first games on synthetic surfaces in 1968, there was no difference in the rates of significant injuries per game (0.57 vs 0.67) or major injuries per game (0.22 vs 0.33) between games played on grass or artificial turf, respectively. Since 1969 there has been a decline in major knee injuries (rs = -.51; P less than .05) and a decline in major injuries incurred during special-teams play (rs = -.55; P less than .05). The data indicate that this team suffered fewer injuries with the passing of time, primarily in injuries that caused a player to miss at least eight consecutive games. Observations of short duration do not lend themselves to current media perception that injury rates are higher and more serious today in professional football.

The management of heel pain in the athlete

Heel pain in the athlete can be the result of several factors, including anatomic variations, biomechanical faults, poor habits, and training errors. Common sites of heel pain are inferior and posterior to the calcaneus. Before any treatment program is begun, thorough evaluation and accurate diagnosis are required. The more correct the diagnosis, the greater the chance of instituting a successful treatment regimen.

Historical development of shoulder care

The development over the last century and a half of treatment for dislocation of the shoulder, fractures, acromioclavicular dislocation, arthroplasty, and rupture of the rotator cuff is outlined.

The ancient Greek origins of sports medicine

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