Page 9 - Livro Tratado de lesões da coluna no esporte

Prefácio

‘Life is motion, motion is life’

(AO principle 1959)

It remains unclear who really deserves credit for having

first coined this essential life philosophy, but for the global AO

community this has been a unifying guiding motto through

more than 60 years to improve the practice of musculoskeletal

medicine. At first sight the concept of combining Sports

medicine with Spine surgery may seem to be an anomaly, as

most practitioners see the primary athletic problems of high –

end athletes to be centered around knee, shoulder, ankle and

hip injuries – with some hand and finger injuries thrown in

for good measure. Traditionally, most Sports Medicine care

for athlete’s Spine problems has been relegated to Physiatry

and Family Medicine physicians with Spine surgeons being

relegated to a ‘worst case scenario’ further down the road.

This setup has not aged well at all. There are ever widening

age groups wanting to participate in an ever-increasing

number and variation of regular sports activities ranging

from weekend conditioning to regular high end amateur

or professional endeavors, from very young to very elderly

individuals. Back and neck pain as well as various neurologic

manifestations have become common accompaniments of

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