Sports medicine conference on athletes’ health problems
The 9th international Baltic sports medicine conference takes place in Tartu from 20 to 23 August and it discusses the health problems of young, professional, female and amateur athletes. This conference focuses more on overuse injuries of children and adolescents.
“This year’s conference focuses on overuse injuries of children and adolescents because they are the future of our sports,” said one of the organisers of the conference, Head of the UT Department of Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Eve Unt.
“Overuse injuries are usually caused by small microtraumas which can occur due to wrong techniques, unbalanced training and excessive strain. Complaints come about gradually. If first complaints are addressed in proper time, overuse injuries might be treated more quickly and it can help avoid a long period of absence from sports,” said Unt.
The organiser believes that knowledge about conscious training and avoiding overuse injuries should be introduced as early on as possible: “Parents, trainers and doctors can support and help raise awareness in young athletes.”
The sports trauma session on the opening day is organised in cooperation with the European Federation of Sports Trauma. A separate session is dedicated to the importance of physical activity and its role in the prevention and treatment of illnesses.
In addition to lectures, there are practical workshops and demonstrations. “The participants, especially physiotherapists and trainers, have shown great interest in the practical training for resuscitation and first aid in sports trauma and the places for this were filled already in spring,” said Unt.
There are presentations by internationally renowned lecturers from the USA, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
The conference, which takes place in Tartu at the Dorpat Conference Centre, will host more than 300 participants from 20 countries. They include doctors of different specialities, incl. sports doctors, orthopedists, traumatologists, general practitioners, rehabilitation doctors, and physiotherapists, trainers and other specialists. “This is the biggest number of participants that the Baltic sports medicine conferences have ever had,” added Unt.
The conference is organised by the University of Tartu, Tartu University Hospital, Sports Medicine Foundation, Estonian Sports Medicine Foundation, Estonian Arthroscopy and Sports Traumatology Society, Estonian Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee.
Information about the conference and the programme are at: http://sportsmedicine.ut.ee.
Additional information: Eve Unt, Head of the UT Department of Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, tel. 7 319 223, 5331 9223, e-mail: eve.unt [ät] ut.ee (.)