Youth sports are a fantastic way to keep kids active and help them meet new friends, but athletic activity can also be hard on a growing body. In fact, a recent study found that low back pain occurs in approximately 10-15 percent of young athletes, which means millions of kids are dealing with back pain that’s making activity difficult or even painful. So what should you do if your child complains of back pain before, during or after athletic activity? In today’s blog, we take a closer look at preventing and treating back pain in adolescent athletes.
Back Pain In Young Athletes
When we’re talking about back pain in this blog, we’re going to focus on some of the more complex spinal disorders that could be causing your child’s discomfort. While spinal muscle strains and back spasms are all too common in athletic activity, most of these mild injuries heal just fine with rest and other simple conservative measures. We can help in the event that these injuries are not resolving as expected, but oftentimes our assistance is not needed.
Instead, we want to focus on some deeper developmental conditions that could be exacerbated by excessive movement and activity during adolescence. That’s not to say that the activity is the problem, because we want kids to be active, but activity tends to make symptoms more noticeable. And that can actually be a good thing, because it can draw attention to the problem and allow for earlier intervention.
Some of the conditions that may be the underlying cause of back pain in adolescent athletes include:
- Spondylolysis
- Spondylolisthesis
- Hyperlordosis
- Discogenic Pain
- Pars Interarticularis Injury
And while low back pain can develop across both sexes, research has shown that females may be more likely to develop back pain during youth sports because of the physical changes they experience during puberty compared to males. Regardless of gender, athletic activity can call attention to or lead to the onset of vertebral shifting during a time when the spine is trying to develop and grow, and this combination of bone growth and stress from activity can lead to pain and related symptoms.
Treating Adolescent Athlete Back Pain
Treatment of youth back pain will be unique to the individual and their specific diagnosis, but there is a pretty standard course for getting through the diagnostic stage. If your child is complaining of back pain or back discomfort sets in during activity, bring them into their primary care physician, or better yet, a spine specialist like Dr. Sinicropi.
He’ll begin by reviewing their medical history and conducting a physical exam of their spine. He may have them perform a couple simple movement tests to see which actions cause symptoms to develop or relieve, and he’ll also ask them about their symptoms. From there, he’ll probably have a pretty good idea of what’s going on, but he’ll work to officially confirm his suspicions with an imaging test. X-rays, MRIs or CT scans can prove immensely helpful in determining exactly what’s going on in your spine.
Once an imaging test has pinpointed the source of the pain, Dr. Sinicropi will go to work on crafting a treatment plan for your kid’s specific needs. For many, this simply involves a course of physical therapy, strength training exercises and activity limitation to avoid overstressing the area. Most kids are more than happy to participate in this type of treatment if it means they’ll be able to continue to be active down the road. If more hands-on treatment becomes necessary, we can explain how options like a corticosteroid injection or minimally invasive procedure could provide long-term relief.
For more information, or to talk to a specialist if your young athlete has been dealing with spinal discomfort after activity, reach out to Dr. Sinicropi and his team today.
