In the largest prospective study evaluating shoulder instability in in-season contact athletes, 27% of athletes returned to play and completed the season without subsequent instability. While the majority of athletes who return to sport complete the season, recurrent instability events are common regardless of whether the initial injury was a subluxation or dislocation.

Collegiate contact and collision athletes with in-season anterior shoulder instability are significantly more likely to successfully return to sport without subsequent instability events the next season if they undergo surgical repair in the off-season.

Only 3 of 25 lesions demonstrated progression. More than 50% showed partial or complete filling of the defect. Bipolar radiofrequency chondroplasty is an effective way to treat partial-thickness cartilage lesions; however, long-term effects of this treatment on cartilage remain unknown.

The incidence of flexion-distraction thoracolumbar (Chance) fractures has been reported to be between 1.0% and 2.5% in most spine fracture series. In this small study, Chance fractures represented 38% of all tho-racolumbar fractures sustained after IED attack on armored vehicles. The blast pattern associated with IED explosion may be responsible for the high rate of these injuries in vehicle occupants.

Background:Return-to-play protocols describe stepwise, graduated recoveries for safe return from concussion; however, studies that comprehensively track return-to-play time are expensive to administer and heavily sampled from elite male contact-sport athletes.Purpose:To retrospectively assess probable recovery time for collegiate patients to return to play after concussion, especially for understudied populations, such as women and nonelite athletes.Study Design:Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.Methods:Medical staff at a military academy logged a total of 512 concussion medical records over 38 months. Of these, 414 records included complete return-to-play protocols with return-to-play time, sex, athletic status, cause, and other data.Results:Overall mean return to play was 29.4 days. Sex and athletic status both affected return-to-play time. Men showed significantly shorter return to play than women, taking 24.7 days (SEM, 1.5 days) versus 35.5 days (SEM, 2.7 days) (P < .001). Intercollegiate athletes also reported quicker return-to-play times than nonintercollegiate athletes: 25.4 days (SEM, 2.6 days) versus 34.7 days (SEM, 1.6 days) (P = .002). These variables did not significantly interact.Conclusion:Mean recovery time across all groups (29.4 days) showed considerably longer return to play than the most commonly cited concussion recovery time window (7-10 days) for collegiate athletes. Understudied groups, such as women and nonelite athletes, demonstrated notably longer recovery times. The diversity of this sample population was associated with longer return-to-play times; it is unclear how other population-specific factors may have contributed. These inclusive return-to-play windows may indicate longer recovery times outside the population of elite athletes.