Effects of overstress in competitive athletes - aspects on the incidence of shoulder and ankle thrauma in volleyball and basketball

Abstract

An injury, irrespective of its cause, may be of critical consequence in a sportsman’s life. Overuses disorders are repetitive lessions caused by overstress. They are located at the musculo-skeletal level and affect competitive sportsmen typically. Such lesions occur when a biological tissue (muscle, bone, tendon, ligament etc.) is stressed beyond its physical limits.
The pathology of the locomotor system in general and the pathology of overstress in particular have increased constantly in the past years, due to a series of extrinsic and intrinsic factors.The aim of this study is to compare the incidence of musculo-skeletal thraumas of joints (shoulder, knee, ankle), in competitive volleyball players with the incidence of the same injuries in basketball players in 2006-2008. Thrauma incidence in volleyball and basketball is high, the shoulder, the knee and the ankle being the most affected segments of the body.
Material and methods: this article contains only part of the results that were recorded and interpreted after studying 88 players (two batches, 40 volleyball players and 48 basketball players) of the volleyball and basketball teams in Timisoara and Lugoj, from August 2006 to May 2008. The age sportsmen 13- 42 years and their longevity in sports practising was 4 -20 years.The current results continue the study entitled Effects of Overstress in Competitive Sportsmen (Jumper’s Knee Syndrome).The mean, the standard deviation and the standard error of the mean were calculated for all numerical parameters (age, longevity in sport practising, height, weight, BMI, maximum number of thrauma per limb and total number of thrauma). The sportsmen were examined clinically and imagistically (radiology, ultrasound scan and in several cases also MRI).The significance t-test for independent samples was used to compare the values obtained for the two batches.

Key words:

competitive sportsmen, musculo-skeletal traumas, shoulder, ankle