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Fitness Injuries

Treating Sports Injuries: Part 2

Summary & Participants

Safe exercise will prevent most injuries. But if you happen to suffer an injury, what can you do to get back in action as quickly as possible? Join our panel of experts for a discussion of injury treatment, from strains and sprains to more serious problems.

Medically Reviewed On: July 16, 2008

Webcast Transcript

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: Jonathan, let's get to treatment for these injuries. What do you do if you feel a strain, have gotten a sprain or tendonitis? What do you do if you have an injury?

JONATHAN GLASHOW, MD: There is a slight danger in oversimplifying things, but in general, I think there are some basic rules that one can adhere to and still be safe. At any time a muscle or joint is injured or inflamed, we came up with this acronym, PRICE. The P is for protection. And to give an example, a knee injury. If somebody's knee gave out when they were lifting too much weight or when they twisted on the basketball court. So they would want to splint that knee in a comfortable position and maybe put a wrap around it so that it can't move. You would want to rest it, therefore, you wouldn't want to move it around. You would want to ice it. We can talk about the details of how much and how long. Compress it. Keep it tight so it doesn't swell. The E is elevation. Keep it higher than the heart, so that swelling comes down.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: So PRICE then would be Protect, Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation?

JONATHAN GLASHOW, MD: Correct.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: Protection. How does that vary from the compression part.

JONATHAN GLASHOW, MD: Protection would mean that you wouldn't want it to move. Compressing it means squeezing it so no blood can accumulate there. They are similar, but different.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: For your hockey players Jim, is that PRICE something that they are actively using.

JIM RAMSAY: They live and die by it.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: Do they know that they've got to go through the PRICE thing, or do you have to drill into them to do that?

JIM RAMSAY: These are athletes that have been involved in some sort of professional sports from a young age. They have been hurt; sprains and strains and tendonitis. They know and live by the PRICE acronym. But at the same time, it's my job to make sure that that individual is doing all the right things; the compression, the elevation and the ice, and providing all the tools that they need to do it, whether or not we're on our plane flying home from a game or in the hotel after a game, or in the training room after practice or before practice. You definitely have to stay on these guys even though they know it, and they know it very well.

DAVID FOLK THOMAS: We know it makes sense to protect it, and it obviously makes sense to rest it. You don't want to put added stress on it. What does ice do for an injury.

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