Physical Rehabilitation of the Injured Athlete.

The editors have indicated in the preface that the purpose of this text is to "serve as a reference for clinicians as well as a text for students interested in the area of athletic rehabilitation." This text will serve the latter purpose well, but offers little to the currently available reference sources used by clinicians. What this text does offer the clinician is a compilation of much of the information one may find in various texts on this subject.

This text, with contributions from seven authors in addition to the second editor, consists of 13 chapters. Five of the chapters consist of the standard review of treatment of orthopedic injury organized by areas of the body. Unfortunately, important areas of the body such as the wrist, hand, and spine have not been included in this book. The other eight chapters are entitled "Psychologic Factors of Rehabilitation," "Physiologic Factors of Rehabilitation," "Role of Evaluation in the Rehabilitation Program," "Goniometry," "Use of Modalities in Rehabilitation," "Range of Motion and Flexibility," "Introduction to Rehabilitation," and "Aquatic Rehabilitation." Of these eight chapters, the first offers a good review of information on psychological correlates of injury propensity. The fourth chapter offers excellent illustrations of goniometry methods, whereas the chapter on modalities offers a useful format consisting of modality definition, physiological effects, application procedures, and indications and contraindications. The chapter on range of motion and flexibility offers a useful condensation of the many methods used to increase joint and soft tissue mobility.

The finest characteristics of the chapters devoted to rehabilitation of injury outlined by body area are the excellent illustrations and the inclusion of treatment of muscle injury. These chapters are very complete but lack depth. There is an insufficient use of literature relevant to building rationale for treatment methods.

Of final note are the appendixes devoted to lower-extremity rehabilitation exercises and return-to-sports-activities training programs. These are excellent appendixes that the student will find very useful as guides for treatment ideas. Conspicuous in its absence is an appendix of upper-extremity (and spinal) rehabilitation exercises.

In conclusion, Andrews and Harrelson have presented us with another satisfactory medical diagnosis oriented rehabilitation book. What is needed in this genre is a text on rehabilitation of orthopedic injury organized by the physical problems (eg, pain, swelling, hypomobility) presented by the patient. I would recommend this book to individuals who are looking for a single text devoted to the treatment of orthopedic injury in the athlete and who do not currently own similar texts such as Gould's Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy, Magee's Orthopedic Physical Assessment, and Saunders's Sports Physical Therapy.