Essential Dance Medicine

Book excerpt: Groundbreaking and long overdue, Essential Dance Medicine is a unique text designed to help medical professionals learn the presentations, differential diagnoses and available treatment options for common dance injuries. As different types of dance have evolved, so have their related injuries. This novel text explains the underlying principles associated with correct ballet, modern and ethnic dance movements to better understand the pathophysiology and mechanism of action for the injuries described. It provides further insight by elucidating common errors and compensations dancers often make in an effort to achieve correct positioning and technique. Describing different types of dance injuries according to body region, each chapter is organized by case reports that depict a typical patient, followed by the epidemiology and pathophysiology associated with the dancer’s injury. The history, physical examination findings, imaging and diagnostic evaluation for each condition are discussed. Non-operative and surgical treatment options are described according to chronicity and stage of severity of the injury. To provide evidence behind the algorithms of treatment and to highlight applicable research, relevant studies are cited as often as possible. Classic texts are also referenced to provide more in-depth information. Certain to become a gold standard in the field, Essential Dance Medicine is an important new text that provides medical professionals with the necessary tools to treat amateur and professional dancers and help them prolong their dance careers.