Paediatric ortho, sports med depts start OPD service

LUCKNOW: OPD services in the country’s first paediatric orthopaedic department and the state’s first sports medicine department started at the King George’s Medical University here on Friday.

“Both the departments were urgently required in the state as children’s injuries were not being given specialized care. Also people, particularly sportspersons, did not understand the impact of sports injury on their performance, ” said Prof Ajai Singh, HoD, paediatric orthopaedic and Prof Ashish Kumar HoD, sports medicine in a joint press conference.

“Though orthopaedics also treats sports injury cases, the difference between orthopaedics and sports medicine is that in orthopaedics we advise patients to rest properly but in sports medicine speedy rehabilitation is under focus,” said Prof Kumar, adding: “This is because a delay in rehabilitation will spoil muscle endurance which will never be normal again for ultimate performance of the sportsperson.”

“The dedicated OPD will cater to the specific needs of sports injury patients,” said Prof Kumar. “Pain in the inner side of the elbow happens to be golfers’ elbow and can occur even while lifting a bucket full of water. The other examples of common sports injury are jumpers’ knee, caused by incorrect rope skipping,” he said. The new departments will soon appoint more faculty members for which posts have been sanctioned. Now interviews will start.

In a study of cases coming to KGMU it was found children less than 10 years of age usually got injured during play, while kids between 12 and 16 years of age were mostly injured in road accidents. Significantly, in India, 40% injuries of kids were missed as compared to 68% injured adults who reached medical centres, said Prof Singh. “Injury of an adult and a minor have to be given the same attention, particularly in the first hour, so that level of injury and line of treatment can be ascertained quickly for speedy recovery,” he said.