Characteristics and prevalence of musculoskeletal injury in professional and non-professional ballet dancers

BACKGROUND: Ballet is a high-performance activity that requires an advanced level of technical skills. Ballet places great stress on tendons, muscles, bones, and joints and may act directly as a trigger of injury by overuse. OBJECTIVES: 1) to describe the main types of injuries and affected areas related to classical ballet and 2) to compare the frequency of musculoskeletal injuries among professional and non-professional ballet dancers, considering possible gender differences among the professional dancers. METHOD: A total of 110 questionnaires were answered by professional and non-professional dancers. The questionnaire contained items related to the presence of injury, the regions involved, and the mechanism of the injury. RESULTS: We observed a high frequency of musculoskeletal injuries, with ankle sprains accounting for 69.8% of injuries in professional dancers and 42.1% in non-professional dancers. Pirouettes were the most frequent mechanism of injury in professional dancers, accounting for 67.9% of injuries, whereas in the non-professional dancers, repetitive movement was the most common mechanism (28.1%). Ankle sprains occurred in 90% of the women's injuries, and muscle sprains occurred in 54.5% of the men's injuries. The most frequent injury location was the ankle joint in both sexes among the professional dancers, with 67.6% in women and 40.9% in men. CONCLUSIONS: The identification of the mechanism of injury and time of practice may contribute to better therapeutic action aimed at the proper function of the dancers' bodies and improved performance by these athletes.

Functional performance testing in athletes with functional ankle instability

To determine if functional performance deficits are present in athletes with functional ankle instability [FAI] compared to healthy athletes using various functional performance tests. Sixty two athletes [mean age-21.7 +/- 1.8years; height-168.2 +/- 9.1cm; weight-63.8 +/- l 1.0kg] participated in this case control study. Athletes were divided into two groups: athletes with FAI [FAI group, n=31] and healthy athletes [Non-FAI group, n=31]. The FAI group was further divided into two subgroups: FAI with giving way [FAI-GW], FAI with no giving way [FAI-NGW]. Functional performance was assessed with the single-limb hopping test, figure-of-8 hop test, side-hop test, single-limb hurdle test, square hop test and single hop test. Significant differences [P<0.05] were observed for all the functional performance tests [FPTs] except the single hop test between FAI and Non-FAI groups; between FAI-GW, FAI-NGW and Non-FAI groups. Additionally, the involved limb performed significantly worse [P<0.05] than the contra-lateral uninvolved limb of the FAI-GW group for the above-mentioned FPTs. Significant functional performance deficits were observed in the FAI group in all tests except single hop test with greater deficits observed in the FAI-GW group. Hence, these tests can be used to determine the presence of FAI. However no deficits were identified for the test involving sagittal plane functional activities suggesting that this test can not be used as a criterion to discriminate individuals with FAI. It was further ascertained that functional performance was not affected by limb dominance

Comparación de esguinces de tobillo entre jugadores de basquet profesionales y amateurs / Ankle sprains comparison between professional and recreative basketball players

La lesión ligamentaria aguda del tobillo, denominada esguince o entorsis es la lesión del tobillo que ocurre con mayor frecuencia en el ámbito deportivo (aproximadamente 25 por ciento de las lesiones), el básquet es una de las actividades deportivas con mayor riesgo de lesión (20-50 por ciento) y se afecta el complejo lateral externo en el 85 por ciento de los casos. El propósito de este trabajo es comparar la frecuencia, la gravedad de la lesión, las complicaciones y recidiva de la misma entre jugadores de básquet profesionales y amateurs.

Fracturas cerradas del tobillo tratadas conservadoramente: evaluación a 10 años / Conservative treatment of closed fractures of the ankle: a ten years follow-up

Se realizó un estudio retrospectivo a 10 años con pacientes recibidos entre 1981 y 1985, se captaron 115 casos de tobillos fracturados en el servicio de urgencias, tratados conservadoramente, de los cuales sólo pudimos revalorar clínica y radiológicamente 30 casos en 1995. Las fracturas eran unilaterales y habían sido tratadas con manipulación y colocación de aparato de yeso para inmovilizar por 6 a 8 semanas. La edad oscilaba entre los 25 y los 65 años, siendo el sexo femenino más frecuente, 17 mujeres (56.6 por ciento) y 13 hombres (43.4 por ciento). Se utilizó la clasificación de Danis-Weber y se valoraron los arcos de movilidad activos de dorsiflexión y flexión plantar. Fueron 6 tipo A (20 por ciento), 16 tipo B (53.3 por ciento) y 8 tipo C (26.7 por ciento), siendo 4 unimaleolares (13.3), 18 bimaleolares (60 por ciento) y 8 trimaleolares (26.7 por ciento). Respecto a la presentación del dolor, en las tipo A no se presentó; de la tipo B, lo hubo en 9 casos y de las tipo C, 5 casos, con inicio del dolor con una media de 5 años, con datos radiológicos de artrosis a nivel tibioperoneo distal principalmente en algunas tipo B y C. Limitación de dorsiflexión y flexión plantar activa de 5 a 10 grados, encontramos 4 en las tipo B y 4 en las tipo C. Se concluye que debe ser considerado el tratamiento quirúrgico para la reducción cruenta y osteosíntesis con la reparación de la articulación tibioperonea distal en las fracturas tipo B y C ya que algunas de éstas dan artrosis con dolor y limitación de los movimientos, por la incongruencia residual de dicha articulación

Resonancia magnética de tobillo / Magnetic resonance imaging of the ankle

La articulación del tobillo debido a la frecuencia con que sufren traumatismos nos obliga a conocer profundamente su anatomía y patología, sobre todo con Resonancia Magnética, la cual nos permite visualizar y evaluar cada una de sus estructuras. En este artículo, tratamos en forma suscinta la anatomía y patología de ligamentos y tendones de esta articulación