Overcoming Fear May Not Help Your Post ACL Walk

Association Between Kinesiophobia and Walking Gait Characteristics in Physically Active Individuals with Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction

Luc-Harkey BA, Franz JR, Losina E, & Pietrosimone B.  Gait and Posture. Published online June 15, 2018 64: 220-225. DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2018.06.029

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29933185

Take Home Message: Kinesiophobia was unrelated to gait characteristics during a walk among physically active individuals with an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction involves a challenging and difficult rehabilitation process, which is relatively successful in returning patients to physical activity. Unfortunately, too often patients fail to return to pre-injury levels of activity, pain, and gait mechanics.  Most patients experience some sort of fear of reinjury/movement or gait avoidance patterns after an ACL injury. A persons’ fear of reinjury/movement may contribute to gait changes; however, this is untested. Hence, these researchers explored if fear of re-injury/movement related to gait characteristics among physically active individuals after an ACL reconstruction.

Recommendations for participation in leisure time or competitive sports in athletes-patients with coronary artery disease: a position statement from the Sports Cardiology Section of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC)

Recommendations for participation in leisure time or competitive sports in athletes-patients with coronary artery disease: a position statement from the Sports Cardiology Section of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC)

Borjesson M, Dellborg M, Niebauer J, LaGerche A, Schmied C, Solberg EE, Halle M, Adami E, Biffi A, Carré F, Caselli S, Papadakis M, Pressler A, Rasmusen H, Serratosa L, Sharma S, van Buuren F, Pelliccia A. Eur Heart J. 2018 Jul 19. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehy408. [Epub ahead of print]

Full Text Freely Available

The Sports Cardiology Section of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC) released recommendations to encourage safe regular physical activity, including sports, for all individuals with coronary artery disease. The document is based on current evidence, but often needed to rely on clinical experience and expert opinion. The authors discuss “asymptomatic athletes with absence of clinically evident coronary artery disease”, “clinically proven coronary artery disease”, “recommendations”, and “non-coronary artery disease related myocardial ischaemia”.

View 167 other recent position statements, consensus statements, guidelines, and recommendations related to sports medicine.

Concussion management in combat sports: consensus statement from the Association of Ringside Physicians

Concussion management in combat sports: consensus statement from the Association of Ringside Physicians.

Neidecker J, Sethi NK, Taylor R, Monsell R, Muzzi D, Spizler B, Lovelace L, Ayoub E, Weinstein R, Estwanik J, Reyes P, Cantu RC, Jordan B, Goodman M, Stiller JW,, Gelber J, Boltuch R, Coletta D, Gagliardi A, Gelfman S, Golden P, Rizzo N, Wallace P, Fields A, Inalsingh C. Br J Sports Med. 2018 Jul 26. pii: bjsports-2017-098799. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2017-098799. [Epub ahead of print]

Full Text Freely Available

“The Association of Ringside Physicians (an international, non-profit organisation dedicated to the health and safety of the combat sports athlete) sets forth this consensus statement to establish management guidelines that ringside physicians, fighters, referees, trainers, promoters, sanctioning bodies and other healthcare professionals can use in the ringside

setting. We also provide guidelines for the return of a combat sports athlete to competition after sustaining a concussion.” The document includes definitions and clarifications of key terms, a review of literature, a review of current practices, and a return to fighting protocol.

View 166 other recent position statements, consensus statements, guidelines, and recommendations related to sports medicine.

Pain in the Back: Incidence and Risk Factors in Youth Court Sport Athletes

Incidence and risk factors for back pain in young floorball and basketball players: A Prospective study

Rossi MK, Pasanen K, Heinonen A, Myklebust G, Kannus P, Kujala UM, Parkkari J. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2018 Jun 8. doi: 10.1111/sms.13237. [Epub ahead of print]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29883001

Take Home Message: Low back pain, especially recurrent back pain, is common among youth basketball and floorball athletes. Lower limb strength and flexibility measures failed to predict who would develop low back pain.

Basketball and floorball (floor hockey) include similar sport-specific demands that require an athlete to maintain control of their lower extremity while performing rotational trunk motions. Low back injuries are common among these athletes. However, there is little information on incidence rates and risk factors for back pain among youth basketball and floorball athletes. Therefore, the authors performed a prospective study on 396 youth basketball or floorball athletes in Finland (2011 to 2015) to determine rates of traumatic and non-traumatic back pain in youth athletes. They also tested risk factors for low back pain.

Return to Sport Does Not Mean Return to Same Performance Level

Return to play, performance, and career duration after anterior cruciate ligament rupture: A case-control study in the five biggest football nations in Europe.

Niederer D, Engeroff T, Wilke J, Vogt L, Banzer W. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2018. [Epub Ahead of Print].

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29927499

Take Home Message: Elite soccer players have rates of high return to play after an ACL reconstruction; however, it can take up to 2 years to return to a similar performance level as their peers. Furthermore, they may be more likely to have a shorter career than their peers.

While many patients after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction return to play, they are at risk for serious long-term problems (e.g., re-injury, osteoarthritis), which could adversely affect his/her performance level after returning to play. Prior investigators have struggled to account for various factors that may contribute to retirement or diminished performance after an ACL reconstruction. Therefore, the authors looked at top-level European football (soccer) athletes to compare return-to-play rates, career duration, and game performance of athletes who underwent ACL reconstruction and matched control athletes.

A Nap a Day May Keep the Doctor Away

The influence of sleep and training lead on illness in the nationally competitive male Australian Football Athletes: A cohort study of one season.

Fitzgerald D, Beckmans C, Joyce D and Mills K. J Sci Med Sport. 2018. [Epub Ahead of Print].

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1440244018302627

Take Home Message: An Australian Football athlete who reported fewer hours of sleep or poorer sleep quality may be at greater risk of illness than his peers.

Illness is a leading cause of absenteeism in athletics. Disrupted sleep patterns and excessive training loads may contribute to an athlete’s risk of illness. However, there’s insufficient data on this concept to inform the design of training programs to reduce the risk of illness. Therefore, Fitzgerald and colleagues completed a retrospective analysis to identify the incidence of illness among 44 nationally competitive Australian football athletes with respect to training load and sleep.

Female Runners Should Watch Their Step

Kinetic Risk Factor of Running-Related Injuries in Female Recreational Runners.

Napier C, MacLean CL, Maurer J, Taunton, JE, Hunt, MA. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2018 May. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.13228
Text Freely Available

Take Home Message: A female recreational runner with greater peak braking force is more likely to get an injury during a 15-week half-marathon training program.

Authors of a recent systematic review showed that gait retraining can address abnormal biomechanics that may increase the risk of running-related injuries. However, it is unclear if these proposed biomechanical risk factors are present before an injury and if they predict who will get an injury. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine if several biomechanical factors are associated with the onset of running-related injuries among female recreational runners.