Musculoskeletal Trauma: Implications for Sports Injury Management.

Delforge G. Champaign, IL 61825-5076, Human Kinetics, 2002, hardcover, 262 pp, illus, ISBN: 0-7360-3879-5, $39.

This text is a comprehensive discussion of musculoskeletal trauma and tissue healing and implications for treatment planning. The author emphasizes that it is critical for sports medicine providers to have a sound understanding of the healing process from tissue trauma. The text, therefore, is written in this context to help the health care provider with clinical decision making and problem solving when developing therapeutic treatment plans following sport injury trauma.

The text is divided into 5 parts. Part I (2 chapters) provides an overview of sports injury management, including discussions of normal tissue structure

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and function, the essentials of tissue healing, and primary and secondary hemostasis. This part is well written and presents a solid overview of the relationship between clinical decision making and the essentials of tissue healing.

Part II (3 chapters) discusses soft tissue repair and therapeutic intervention. The author emphasizes the stages of inflammation and healing and the types of therapeutic interventions for inflammation, pain, spasm, and scar formation. The chapter on inflammation is well organized, easy to follow, and supported effectively with graphics. The chapter On therapeutic interventions (physical agents, therapeutic exercise, and pharmacological agents) is well organized and comprehensive. Problem-solving and decision-making scenarios are included with this chapter, providing readers with the opportunity to ,apply and assess what they have learned. The case scenarios would be more useful, however, if the author had included suggested answers or solutions to the problem-solving questions for comparison. This would be particularly effective for professional students and clinicians.

Part III (2 chapters) and IV (2 chapters) address fracture healing and proprioceptive and sensorimotor deficits, respectively. These parts of the text include excellent discussions of the anatomy and physiology of fractures and of proprioception and sensorimotor function and deficits. Therapeutic interventions for fracture management--splinting, bracing, mobilization, and strengthening--and for proprioceptive and sensorimotor deficits--joint control, balance, and sensorimotor and proprioception training--are covered in detail. A case scenario is included for chapter 7 ("Therapeutic Implications: Fracture Healing") and chapter 9 ("Therapeutic Implications: Proprioceptive and Sensorimotor Deficits").

Part V (2 chapters) emphasizes problem solving in sports injury management. These chapters focus on assessment and problem identification and treatment planning. The Problem-Oriented Medical Record and the SOAP (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan) note documentation model are covered, including a discussion of how the treatment planning process reinforces the importance of goal development and evaluation. The discussion of assessment and treatment planning in the first part of chapter 10 ("Sports Injury Treatment and Rehabilitation Planning") does not add to the unique elements of the text. However, chapter 11 concludes with a description of the Sports Injury Rehabilitation Conceptual Model, which is concise and easy to follow and apply. The model, presented both in text and graphically, provides a staged approach to injury recovery from trauma to return to full activity; however, the author does not provide references to research on the effectiveness of this model. This discussion provides an effective summary and review of the text's objectives and content.

The strength of this text is its organization and its comprehensive, well-researched, and easy-to-follow content. Although most texts on sports- and activity-related injuries cover the topics included in this text, Musculoskeletal Trauma Implications for Sport Injury Management does so in greater depth. The content is supported effectively by graphics including tables and figures. The author obviously is experienced as a clinician and educator. The case scenarios are excellent; however, including suggested solutions to the scenarios would have enhanced their effectiveness.

The text will be an excellent resource both as required reading and for library reference for both entry-level and advanced-level courses in sports injury trauma, assessment, and treatment planning. Physical therapists, athletic trainers, and other allied health care professionals who manage people who are physically active will find this a useful addition to their daily resources and library.

Charles J Redmond, PT, ATC Springfield College Springfield, Mass

Mr Redmond is Chairperson of the Department of Exercise Science and Sport Studies and teaches in the Physical Therapy Program. He has more than 30 years of clinical and teaching experience in health care for athletes.