If you or your child play sports, you are no stranger to athletic injuries. The old adage, “it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt,” has never been more true. The biggest issue with sports injuries, is when athletes either play through the pain and end up hurting themselves worse or getting back in the game before they are healed. We wanted to highlight the five most common sports injuries, how to identify them, how to get treatment for those injuries and give you an idea of how much the procedures will cost you.
- Ankle Injuries: Ankle injuries are by far the most common injuries athletes experience, especially in younger female athletes who have weaker ankles. The most common ankle injuries include:
- Ankle Sprain: A sprain happens when the ligaments in your ankle, connecting your bones, either overstretch or tear. Minor sprains are less painful, but a major sprain usually has a complete tear. This often occurs when you roll your ankle or turn it.
- Diagnosis/Treatment – There will be immediate swelling and maybe bruising. It may hurt to touch your ankle or walk on it, but there is no need for medical imaging.
- Costs – $70 – The average cost to see a doctor at the urgent care clinic.
- Ankle Fracture: These may be acute fractures (a one-time injury) or a stress fracture, cased by repeated stress on the bone.
- Diagnosis/Treatment – If your pain is severe you should consult a physician to determine if there is an ankle fracture. The doctor will order an X-ray to confirm a fracture and may order a CT scan as well to further evaluate, especially if the fracture is in the ankle joint.
- Costs – CT Scan in Tampa costs $325 while an ankle X-ray costs between $75-$125.
Shop Now: for Ankle CT scans and X-rays
- Knee Injuries: Over 5 Million athletes go to orthopedic surgeons with knee injuries each year. Depending on the injury, it could mean the end of someone’s athletic career, so appropriately diagnosing knee injuries early is of the utmost importance. There’s a large range of knee injuries with varying severity levels, including:
- ACL Tear: Athletes often tear their ACLs by changing direction too quickly, stopping too fast, while slowing down, jumping and landing incorrectly or in a collision with another player. You will often hear a loud pop when the anterior cruciate ligament is torn.
- Diagnosis/Treatment – Your doctor will likely order an MRI of the knee to identify an ACL tear. They cannot be diagnosed with an x-ray, though a doctor might do one first to rule out any broken bones.
- Costs – an MRI in Chicago costs anywhere from $375 to $525, while an X-ray at the same places cost $90 and $105 respectively.
- Meniscus Tear: A meniscus tear is when there is damage to the discs that cushion your knee, which is usually caused when your knee twists by your foot stay planted on the ground. This is very common among soccer players.
- Diagnosis/Treatment – Some of these tears can be healed without surgery, but an MRI will determine if there is a tear and how extensive the tear is.
- Costs – Prices for a knee MRI in Chicago start at $375.
Shop Now: for Knee MRIs in your area
- Shoulder Injuries: In 2006, AAOS reported that approximately 7.5 million people went to orthopedists for shoulder issues with more than 4.1 million of these patients being diagnosed with rotator cuff injuries.
- Rotator Cuff Injury: The tissues connecting your arm to your shoulder is what makes up your rotator cuff. Injuries occur in this area with repetitive movement or just age in general. Common symptoms include pain at rest and at night, pain when lifting or lowering arms or a crackling sensation with movement.
- Diagnosis/Treatment – Early repair is important for an athlete because these can become harder to repair down the line. Your physician will likely order an ultrasound to find tears early on, which can be repaired with a keyhole surgery (arthroscopy) or open surgery.
- Costs – An ultrasound of the rotator cuff in Orlando costs $225, while the arthroscopic procedure price starts at around $2,139.
- Shoulder Labral Tear: There at SLAP labral tears (above socket) and Bankart tears (below socket), but each can cause pain with overhead activities, loss of strength, decreased range of motion and instability. These are often caused by direct shots to the shoulder or can occur with throwing.
- Diagnosis/Treatment – Shoulder labral tears can be diagnosed with an MR Arthrogram and confirmed with a keyhole surgery (arthroscopy).
- Costs – The MR Arthrogram will cost $520 in Los Angeles while the arthroscopy in that area will cost $5,805.
Shop Now: for shoulder surgeries and diagnostic imaging
- Hip Injuries: Hip injuries affect more than just the elderly, in fact, 10% of injuries amount NFL players involved the hip. There are a number of hip injuries to be aware of, including:
- Hip Labral Tears: The hip labrum is the cartilage surrounding your hip socket. A tear in this essential area will cause pain in the groin and hip and could feel like your hip joint is “catching” with movement.
- Diagnosis/Treatment – Your physician will test your hip’s range of motion initially, then could order an X-ray to rule out fractures or other issues and finally order an MRI with contrast injected to define a labral tear.
- Costs – The hip MRI will cost $475 in New York City, while the hip X-ray would cost just $90.
- Hip Pointer: A hip pointer injury is painful, but not career-ending for athletes. It’s caused when you get hit or fall on the ground on your side. There will likely be a lot of pain and bruising.
- Diagnosis/Treatment – Most hip pointers can be diagnosed without imaging, but a physician may order an MRI and ultrasound to determine the extent of the injury or order an X-ray for younger patients to rule out an avulsion fracture.
- Costs – The hip MRI in Miami would cost $444, the hip ultrasound would cost $280 and if an x-ray was necessary, the cost would be $90.
Shop Now: for hip MRIs, ultrasounds and x-rays
- Shin Splints: Shin splints are very common in runners and are extremely painful. The annoying thing about shin splint injuries is that there is no quick fix treatment and continuing to run just makes them worse.
- Shin Splints: With shin splits there is a dull ache in the front, the lower part of your leg that will get worse as you exercise. It’s caused when your muscles swell and build pressure against your bone.
- Diagnosis/Treatment – Your physician will likely not order any imaging as these are easy to diagnose based on pain and activity. The doctor will recommend ice packs for inflammation, ibuprofen, stretching and cutting high impact running.
- Costs – No imaging necessary, so your only costs would be for ice packs and ibuprofen!
