Elite Sports Medicine

Connecticut Children’s Elite Sports Medicine (ESM) is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary program dedicated to helping adolescent and young adult athletes reach their top athletic performance. For more than 15 years, our program has worked with youth, high school, college and professional athletes to improve their health and safety, as well as prevent, treat and rehabilitate all sport injuries from head to toe.

ESM believes athletic performance, from proper training to injury rehabilitation, requires multidisciplinary attention. The sports medicine specialists at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center represent a range of disciplines including physical therapy, exercise science, athletic training, orthopaedics and orthopaedic surgery, kinesiology, nutrition, and biomedical engineering. The diverse expertise among Elite Sports Medicine specialists allows for comprehensive and coordinated care.

Connecticut Children’s offers sports medicine specialty care primarily for student athletes who are 10-30 years old. Our care includes operative and non-operative sports injury treatment, nutrition, sports psychology, physical training and conditioning for athletes who engage in all kinds of sports including individual, team, contact, water, winter and recreational sports. Our patients have access to cutting-edge technologies and leading therapy methods. Services offered by Elite Sports Medicine include:

  • Casting and splinting
  • Concussion management
  • Injury prevention
  • Non-operative sports medicine
  • Nutrition counseling
  • Research
  • Specialized sports physical therapy
  • Sports nutrition services
  • Surgical sports medicine
  • Transitional therapy

Our sports medicine specialists are experts in evaluating and treating all types of athletic injuries in adolescents and young adults. Whether an injury happened on or off the playing field, we help patients regain mobility, flexibility and strength so they can get back to performing at their best. Injuries treated by the specialist of Elite Sports Medicine include:

Ankle

  • Lateral ankle sprains
  • Peroneal tendon injuries
  • Stress fractures
  • Syndesmosis sprains (high ankle sprains)

Elbow

  • Lateral epicondylitis (Tennis elbow)
  • Medial epicondylitis (Golfer's elbow)
  • Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD, Little Leaguer’s elbow)
  • Ulnar collateral ligament tears

Head

  • Concussion

Hip

  • Labral tear
  • Snapping hip syndrome

Knee

  • Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear
  • Cartilage lesions
  • Iliotibial band syndrome (ITB)
  • Medial collateral ligament (MCL) sprain
  • Meniscus tears
  • Osteochondral injury of the talus (OLT)
  • Patellar dislocation
  • Patellar tendinitis (Jumper's knee)
  • Patellofemoral (kneecap) pain
  • Synovial impingement syndrome (SIPL)

Lower Leg

  • Exertional compartment syndrome
  • Medial tibial stress syndrome (shin splints)
  • Osgood-Schlatter disease

Shoulder

  • Proximal humeral epiphysiolysis (Little Leaguer's shoulder)
  • Rotator cuff tear
  • Rotator cuff tendinitis (shoulder bursitis)
  • Shoulder dislocation
  • Shoulder impingement syndrome
  • Shoulder labral tears
  • Shoulder separation

Wrist

  • Dorsal wrist syndrome
  • Scaphoid fracture
  • Triangular fibrocartilage complex (TFCC) tears