Orthopedic surgeon Timothy Kremchek, MD, estimates about 20 percent of the roughly 6,500 procedures he has performed in the past five years involved patients age 18 or younger, WLWT5 reports.
Here's what you should know:
1. Dr. Kremchek, who practices at Cincinnati-based Beacon Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, treats the Cincinnati Reds, Cincinnati Bengals and several student-athletes. He sees nearly 15,000 patients a year, including thousands of kids with preventable sports-related injuries, he said.
2. Parents, coaches and sponsors often pressure kids to play through pain and urges parents to give their kids enough time to heal after injuries, Dr. Kremchek said. He advises young athletes to play sports in moderation.
3. Limiting kids to one sport at a young age is problematic because if they play year-round, they overuse the same muscles, he said.
4. Dr. Kremchek's message to parents and coaches is that early specialization in sports and pushing kids through injury "is not a healthy lifestyle."
5. Dr. Kremchek previously spoke out against youth baseball players throwing too much, especially at younger ages. Little League Baseball implemented a pitch limit, limiting young pitchers to a certain number of pitches per game.
"In my opinion, in what I do in my small little world of orthopedic surgery, sports medicine and taking care of kids, high school athletes for my entire career, this is child abuse," Dr. Kremchek told WLWT5.