How a Pediatrics Focus Enhances Sports Medicine Care

UR Medicine’s Sports Medicine is advancing specialized care for young athletes. With a focus on pediatrics, the team is dedicated to developing services that cater specifically to prepubescent and teen athletes.

These efforts include the creation of targeted sports clinics and the introduction of innovative ACL repair techniques designed to protect growing bodies. The goal is to provide young athletes with the specialized care they need to stay healthy and perform at their best.

Sports Medicine experts Katie Rizzone, MD, and Sarah Lander, MD, share why they're focused on building more services for young athletes.

Rising Injuries in Young Athletes

Young athletes are playing sports more frequently and at a higher intensity than ever before, and we’re seeing a steep rise in injuries from chronic overuse. These injuries are happening to bodies that are still developing and growing, so treatments need to take that into account.

"I’m board certified in pediatrics as well as sports medicine to provide non-surgical care and management for young athletes. I’m also interested in sport-specific clinical services, which is why I developed and lead our URMC RUN program, a multidisciplinary clinic for runners," said Rizzone.

Many sports injuries can be managed non-operatively with appropriate medical care, rest, and rehab. But if surgery may be necessary, we have a team of experienced sports medicine surgeons, like Lander, with expertise in treating very young athletes.

Protecting Growth Plates: Specialized Surgical Care

Young athletes with open growth plates need specialized care. Some of the established procedures for treating injuries in older teens and adults aren’t ideal for prepubescent athletes; one example is ACL surgery.

"Athletes with open growth plates need specialized surgical care to ensure the surgery doesn’t damage their growth plates and affect their development later in life," said Lander.

The adult ACL procedure involves drilling through the area where growth plates are located in younger patients which would damage these growth centers to stop growth and risk later deformity.

"I use a pediatric surgery technique that preserves and protects the open growth plates and allows children to get back to the activities they love," said Lander. "In the pediatric procedure, I weave a graft from the patient’s body through the joint to avoid those growth plates."

The procedure has an excellent success rate. Young athletes and their parents, coaches, and trainers need to know about their options so they can make an informed decision that can impact the athlete’s lifelong development.