Sports podiatry is a subspecialty of sports medicine that focuses on preventing, diagnosing, and treating injuries caused by engaging in sports or other physical activity.
One in ten adults are estimated to suffer at least one injury each year as a result of their sporting activities, or more than 5.5 million incidents of exercise-related injury.
The bulk of sports-related injuries involve the lower limbs; for instance, the most frequent acute injury is an ankle sprain, the most frequent tendon injury is an Achilles tendon injury, and the most common joint pathology is patellofemoral syndrome, a knee injury.
Therefore, through a wide range of treatment treatments, podiatry has a key role to play in ensuring that the population is injury-free, active, and able to participate in a complete spectrum of sports.
Sports injuries that podiatrists frequently see include:
• Runners knee, also referred to as iliotibial band syndrome
• Achilles tendonopathies
• Medial soreness
• Shin splints
• Tibialis posterior tendopathy
• Children growth plate pathologies
Podiatrists who specialise in biomechanics, use a variety of assessment techniques to evaluate their patients. For example, they may use sophisticated video gait analysis to observe their patients while they are moving, as in the case of evaluating a runner.
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