Catastrophic Injuries in High School and College Sports

Frederick O. Mueller is director of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research located at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mueller has been active since 1968 in research on athletic injury, and his contributions have helped to significantly reduce the number of football fatalities and paralyzing injuries and to make sports safer for all participants. Mueller has written more than 75 articles on sport safety, edited Prevention of Athletic Injuries--a book on sports medicine and injury reduction, and presented his findings at national and international sport safety meetings. Mueller, who earned a PhD in Education/Physical Education in 1970 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the American Football Coaches Association, and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD). Robert C. Cantu, MD, is past president of the American College of Sports Medicine and medical director of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research. He has authored more than 180 scientific works, including 14 books on neurology and sports medicine, numerous book chapters, scholarly articles, and video programs. He is an associate editor of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise and Exercise and Sports Science Reviews as well as on the editorial boards of The Physician and Sportsmedicine and Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine. Cantu earned a master's degree in endocrinology in 1962 and an MD in 1963 from the University of California Medical School in San Francisco. A member of more than 25 professional organizations, including ACSM and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, he is vice president of the National Operating Committee for Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE). Cantu serves as chief neurosurgeon and director of sports medicine at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts. Steven P. Van Camp, MD, president of the ACSM, is a cardiologist in private practice in San Diego and medical director of both the Alvarado Hospital Medical Center's Cardiac Rehabilitation Program and San Diego State University's Exercise Physiology Laboratory and Adult Fitness Program. Having researched exercise-related sudden death since 1981, Van Camp has written numerous articles and book chapters on the topic. He is on the editorial boards of both Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise and The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness. He also has been a reviewer for The New England Journal of Medicine, The American Journal of Cardiology, and The Physician and Sportsmedicine. Van Camp lectures around the world on nontraumatic sports death and the cardiovascular aspects of sports medicine. Van Camp earned an MD from the UCLA School of Medicine in 1971. He is a Fellow of the ACSM, the American College of Cardiology, and the American Heart Association Council of Clinical Cardiology.

IntroductionChapter 1. Catastrophic Head and Spine InjuriesChapter 2. Sudden Death in AthletesChapter 3. FootballChapter 4. Team SportsChapter 5. Individual SportsChapter 6. Recommendations for Prevention