TY - JOUR T1 - There is more to pain than tissue damage: eight principles to guide care of acute non-traumatic pain in sport JF - British Journal of Sports Medicine JO - Br J Sports Med SP - 75 LP - 77 DO - 10.1136/bjsports-2019-101705 VL - 55 IS - 2 AU - J P Caneiro AU - Rafael Krasic Alaiti AU - Leandro Fukusawa AU - Luiz Hespanhol AU - Peter Brukner AU - Peter PB O'Sullivan Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/55/2/75.abstract N2 - Musculoskeletal pain in athletes is common, but not always associated with injury (ie, tissue damage).1 Damage occurs when load exceeds tissue tolerance, such as ligament tear or a fracture. However, pain in athletes that occurs in the absence of trauma and tissue damage is still often labelled an ‘injury’ by clinicians, coaches and athletes themselves. This highlights a gap between knowledge (tissue damage is not necessary for pain) and practice (assuming that all pain arises from tissue damage) in our clinical community.1 2 This applies particularly in the area of acute non-traumatic pain (such as back and joint pain). To help bridge this gap, we outline eight principles to guide clinicians who manage musculoskeletal pain in sport (see infographic in figure 1).Figure 1 Infographic—principles to guide care of acute non-traumatic pain in sport.1. In the absence of trauma, do not assume that pain indicates tissue damageLabels such as ‘sports injury’, ‘overuse injury’ or ‘microtrauma’ convey that pain is caused by tissue damage, resulting in over-protection of the athlete. While … ER -