Orchard, John

Rae, Katherine

Til Pérez, Lluís

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

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The Orchard Sports 
Injury Classification
System (OSICS)
Version 10
LLUÍS TILa, JOHN ORCHARDb AND KATHERINE RAEc
aSports Medicine Physician. FC Barcelona. Olympic Training Center. 
Sant Cugat. Barcelona. Spain.
bTeam Physician. Sydney Roosters (NRL). Sydney. Australia.
cSports Physician. Sydney University Football Club. Sydney. Australia.
If you ignore the name of the things, what you know 
of them disappears.
Carl Von Linné (1755)
Classifying and sorting knowledge about a matter are strategies
that will improve the ability to access it. Study of medical
conditions, in order to attain or broaden knowledge, is more
efficient when it is performed in an orderly and systematic
fashion, based on classifications. These medical classifications need
to use a concrete language, facilitating communication among
professionals, diminishing the ambivalence of indeterminate
concepts and eliminating the uncertainty that arises from the use
of equivalent words. 
Taxonomy is derived from the Greek ταξις (taxis; “ordering”) and
νομος (nomos; “rule”) meaning the science of the classification.
Carl Von Linné introduced it in 1753 when Species Plantarum was
published, a book that describes the bases of the system that is
used until today for classifying living species. He grouped the
species establishing hierarchical levels, which have since grown to
be more complex.
Following similar criteria, classifications have been designed in
different areas of the biosciences, intending to group different
entities at hierarchized levels. The categories need to have as clear
a foundation as possible, so that it will be accepted by those who
use the system.
The best classification in a
subject area is one with codes
generated from the professionals
working in that field. Ideally this
will be a system that attains
sufficient complexity, is valid and
is in constant revision, is flexible
enough to adapt and to introduce
new categories and concepts
without invalidating the previous
versions.
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Exhaustive classifications attempt to code all possible diagnoses in
maximum detail, including information on all variables such as
severity and mechanism. However, this extreme complexity lessens
the functionality for everyday use. On the other hand, a superficial
and schematic classification is simple and user friendly, but it can
also be insufficient to differentiate diagnoses for further study.
The International Classification of Diseases in its versions ICD-9
and ICD-10, is the gold standard system of classification and
coding for hospital medicine. This classification allows reporting
from different centers in a reliable fashion, making possible
comparison and pooling of different diagnoses and cases from the
different sources. This classification is relatively inaccessible,
because it is so big, and often specialist coders are required to
ensure coding with rigor and reliability. Some groups use their
own classification systems which are far more accessible, and easy
to use for creators but therefore not useful to communicate or to
compare with others.
The best classification in a subject area is one with codes generated
from the professionals working in that field. Ideally this will be a
system that attains sufficient complexity, is valid and is in constant
revision, is flexible enough to adapt and to introduce new
categories and concepts without invalidating the previous versions.
It must be broad enough in the main field but have simple and
accessible codes for major diagnostic groups in other areas of
medicine.
In Sports Medicine, we hope that the OSICS (Orchard Sports
Injury Classification System) version 10 has these requirements.
This was created originally as part of an injury surveillance system
in Australian football. Because it has been published and copyright
waived, it has commonly been used internationally, but always to
date in English, the original language. Among the groups have
been using are the epidemiological research groups of UEFA and
FIFA. It is subject to regular adaptations and updates, it accepts
open fields that will allow future versions to add extra categories
and diagnoses deemed necessary. The current version OSICS-10
has attained a sufficient level for classifying and coding the injuries
and conditions of athletes at all competitive levels. Also it has
incorporated new categories that allow to code structural
anomalies, pathologies specific to disabled sportsmen, pediatric
conditions, postsurgical situations, medical pathologies,
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John Orchard
Lluís Til
Katherine Rae
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administrative medical actuations and about non ill patients. All
these conditions are also typical of the practice in sports medicine
and it is necessary to register them and to code them. These added
categories penetrate specifically into the aspects that correlate with
the sport, for example among the gynaecological disorders related
to sport (MUGE) and in the different categories of screening of
healthy athletes (ZSXX). 
The OSICS-10 is structured in codes of four letters, the first digit
relates to the anatomic location or to the condition, the second
relates to the injured anatomic structure and the third and fourth
digits broaden information about the diagnosis.
The code X refer to non concrete general situations of location (in
the first digit), of tissue injured (in the second digit), or of
diagnosis (in the third and fourth digit). The code Z is used for
referring to nonspecific situations or in situations of illness
absence. The system intends to bring the maximum information
of the situation in the diagnosis. The use of the classification is
free, people can access to original English version at
www.injuryupdate.com.au.
With the translation from the OSICS-10 into Catalan and 
into the Spanish normative we want to encourage to the
professionals in sports medicine working in the Catalan and
Spanish languages to use it. You can access to the free versions
from the page http://www.apunts.org/ and from
http://www.injuryupdate.com.au/research/OSICS.htm In the
translated versions small corrections have been made, detailed in
the attached document. These clarifications do not modify any
category and only complete them, in order to facilitate the tasks of
coding.
You are free to use the translated OSICS-10; please try it, find
faults and make proposals of improvement. It is a useful tool that
will facilitate the communication amongst ourselves and with our
colleagues of other latitudes, without the inconveniences typical of
the errors of translation. Also it will facilitate the research about
medicine of sport and it will be useful for avoiding imprecision in
the nomenclature.
We welcome the OSICS-10 in Catalan and Spanish.
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General Bibliography
http://www.injuryupdate.com.au/research/OSICS.htm
Rae K, Orchard J. The Orchard Sports Classification System (OSICS) Version 10. Clin J
Sport Med. 2007;17:1-4.
Rae K, Britt H, Orchard J, Finch C. Classifying sports medicine diagnoses: a comparison
of the International Classification of Diseases 10-Australian modification (ICD-10-
AM) and the Orchard sports injury classification system (OSICS-8). Br J Sports Med.
2005;39;907-11.
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The Orchard Sports Injury Classification System (OSICS) Version 10

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Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert