title: Maximizing physical activity in athletes with amputations.
abstract: Medical care of athletes with disabilities parallels medical care for nondisabled athletes. Limb deficiencies, whether congenital, traumatic, or secondary to disease, confer certain challenges to sports participation. Although sports medicine research for people with disabilities lags behind sports medicine research for the nondisabled, there are nonetheless important points to be learned from the available body of published literature in this area. This article reviews the pertinent research literature and supplements it with clinical wisdom that may assist physicians, coaches, prosthetists, and trainers to help keep athletes with limb deficiencies active. The relevant epidemiologic, biomechanical, medical, and psychological issues are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Sports Medicine Fellow, University of Utah Orthopaedic Center, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA. michelle.pepper@hsc.utah.edu
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pepper
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Willick
mesh_terms: D000674:Amputees / Q000523:psychology; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D015444:Exercise; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D019736:Prostheses and Implants; D013177:Sports; D013178:Sports Medicine