Back-to-school sports physicals: Importance for students, other screenings to consider

HOUSTON - Calling all parents! It's time to make sure your kids are ready to head back to school, especially if they're athletes! A local doctor with Baylor College of Medicine encourages families to make sure those sports physicals are scheduled and then take another step to help prevent injuries.

Football players and cheerleaders will be sweating it out on the field soon. Many have already gotten a physical, but if not, now is obviously the time.

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"First, a sports physical can identify underlying health conditions that can be aggravated by physical activities. Number two is injury prevention. These exams can assess any issues regarding the musculoskeletal system that might predispose the students to injuries. So, identifying, addressing these issues ahead of time can certainly help them preventing injuries from happening.," says Dr. Jet Liu, who is an Assistant Professor in Orthopedic Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine.

Plus, he says physicals can help monitor growth and development to help athletes be in their peak condition. Many facilities offer an extra heart screening, because there are often no warning signs that an athlete has a congenital heart defect.  Plenty of high-profile cases, like LeBron James's son Bronny have raised awareness about the importance of early detection. You may recall, he collapsed from cardiac arrest during basketball practice, with no history of heart issues.

While he recovered, local football player Cody Stephens did not. Cody was about to graduate from Crosby High School in 2012 and was looking forward to going to college on a football scholarship, when he died in his sleep from sudden cardiac arrest. Again, no warning signs. Now a foundation in his name helped bring "Cody's Law" to life, offering parents the option for their child to get screened for this #1 killer of student athletes.

"I think that's absolutely essential for them to have additional screenings in addition to just the physical exam from a physician in the office. Cardiac screening is absolutely essential, like ECG or electrocardiogram, or EKG, a different spelling, but means the same thing. They can help detect cardiac conditions that might not be apparent during a regular physical exam," says Dr. Liu.

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He also encourages athletes to go beyond a typical physical and see a specialist, which can help prevent injuries.

"Their lower extremities or legs and foot and ankle are very important in sports. So, if they have issues regarding those areas, certainly have one of us take a look at you to make sure you don't have any chronic conditions, instabilities or things that we need to take care of before the athlete participates on our fields. For cheerleaders, there's a lot of impact on the spine. So, sometimes we have things like scoliosis, an underlying condition they might not realize they had before, so it's good to have that taken care of, or at least looked at before they go go back to their season," explains Dr. Liu.

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Don't forget about their knees and shoulders!

"With swimming or diving, it's very important too! A lot of people have underlying rotator cuff or strains in the shoulders, or muscle imbalance in their scapulas, it's good to have a specialist take a look at those before they go back to school," says Dr. Liu.

Finally, he highly suggests athletes get a baseline concussion screening, so just in case they suffer a concussion, doctors can compare the results.