Ostensible minor injuries suffered in organized college athletics may later lead to serious complications unless properly cared for.

This is the conclusion of the chief surgeon to the Harvard Athletic Association, Dr. Augustus Thorndike. Writing in the recent New England Journal of Medicine, Thorndike maintains that too many small sprains and other minor injuries are dismissed as just that with later resulting damage.

Pointing out that the college medical staff is "appointed to minimize the untoward results of athletics and to define as graphically and clearly as possible the end-results of treatment and those requiring special care," Thorndike contends "to dismiss a sprain of a ligament as a minor injury is a grave error."

The doctor in such cases, Thorndike states, should have complete "knowledge of the degree of the tear and the amount of fibrous scar produced in the healing process."

Since 1932, the largest type of injury has been in the sprain category, with muscle contusions second, strains third, and fractures and dislocations fourth.

In analyzing these injuries, Thorndike discovered that "all fractures and dislocations, as well as injuries to any viscus are considered serious."

"In a well-organized athletic program where coaching and medical supervision work hand in hand," he observes, "there is little likelihood that the athletic will leave college with some disabling permanent scar, trick, knee, or leg paralysis, as a result of sport played for fun. On the other hand, there are graduates who have lost the spleen or one kidney or one eye because of contact sports."

Thorndike has discovered that about 15 percent or roughly one out of every seven injuries proves serious. Those who have had operations for a dislocated shoulder for example "should never be permitted to return to body-contact sport but may take up some other type of sport," he states.

"Properly supervised college athletics, whether intramural or intercollegiate, might reduce the incidence of permanent, crippling injuries in the college population," he says.

Injured Shoudn't Quit

In summation, Thorndike points out that merely because an athlete might have suffered an earlier injury, one that may later prove detrimental, there is no reason why he should abandon athletics entirely.

"At Harvard, four sports--crew, swimming, squash, and tennis--are popular among undergraduates and these are recommended to many of the patients who have previously sustained serious injuries in body-contact sports," he concludes.