Book Review

Clinical Sports Medicine

N Engl J Med 2007; 356:1385March 29, 2007

Article

Clinical Sports Medicine
Edited by Darren L. Johnson and Scott D. Mair. 764 pp., illustrated. Philadelphia, Mosby, 2006. $149. ISBN: 978-0-323-02588-1

More than four decades ago, Don O'Donoghue wrote the first comprehensive book on sports medicine (Treatment of Injuries to Athletes. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1962) — a subspecialty that did not even formally exist at the time. The book addressed the issues that would be faced by the team physician at a high school or college, and it included descriptions of many of the surgical procedures performed on athletes.

All of us in sports medicine would like to think that high school, college, or professional athletes are the focus of our specialty. In reality, however, most sports medicine practices treat recreational athletes. And although they are generally older and less well conditioned than professionals, present with problems later, and often lack the resources — including time — to devote to treatment and rehabilitation, these patients expect care that is the same as that given to high-level athletes.

Clinical Sports Medicine addresses the care of both recreational and professional athletes. It contains 72 chapters written by 132 contributors, some of whom are venerable in the field of sports medicine, and it describes nearly every medical or surgical condition that might be encountered in sports medicine. Topics are organized by anatomical system, and each chapter includes a comprehensive description of the means of establishing diagnoses, as well as a decision tree for choosing treatments. For cases in which surgery is a prominent part of management, the procedures are often described.

Radiograph of an Ankle, Lateral View, Showing Anterior Impingement, or “Footballer's Ankle.”

Some surgical procedures are performed much more frequently in professional athletes than in recreational athletes, but the procedures the two groups receive differ little. What is different in the treatment received is the rehabilitation, because the professional athlete must return to a higher level of activity and performance than the recreational athlete. Rehabilitation is thus the essence of sports medicine practice. Recognizing this, the editors of this book have devoted five comprehensive, anatomically oriented chapters to the principles of rehabilitation. In addition, specific rehabilitation programs for nearly every condition are described.

Particularly comprehensive — and readable — are the chapters on muscle injuries, on the female athlete, and on the principles of rehabilitation. Chapter 10, entitled “The Mature Adult Athlete,” on the other hand, is little more than a description of the sports limitations following joint replacements — giving short shrift to an ever-enlarging segment of sports medicine practice. Likewise, chapter 7, “The Psychological Aspects of Healing the Injured Athlete,” does not do justice to this burgeoning topic.

Although the book leans heavily toward the surgical management of sports injuries — as one would expect in a volume written principally by orthopedic surgeons — it nonetheless does justice to the diagnosis and management of nonsurgical conditions. It stands out as the most up-to-date and comprehensive book dealing with clinical sports medicine.

James G. Garrick, M.D.
St. Francis Memorial Hospital, San Francisco, CA 94109