Status of Return to Play in Growing Athletes with Lumbar Spondylolysis / The Japanese Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine

ABSTRACT

Objective：In athletes who are still in the growing period, lumbar spondylolysis is mainly treated with brace therapy to enable bone fusion. During the brace period, sports activities are often discontinued. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the combination of brace therapy and early physiotherapy affects the duration of return to play in athletes with lumbar spondylolysis.Methods：Thirty-seven athletes in the growing period with unilateral spondylolysis were included in the study. They were classified into two groups：17 patients who rested during the brace period (brace group) and 20 patients who combined the brace with early physical therapy (combination group). The examined items were duration of the brace period and duration from the end of the brace therapy to return to play (return period). Both these items were compared between the brace group and the combination group. In addition, the union rate of both groups was also calculated.Results：The return period was significantly shorter in the combination group than in the brace group. However, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups with respect to other data.Conclusion：Since there was no significant difference in the duration of the brace period and the union rate between both groups, we believe that early physical therapy intervention does not adversely affect bone union in athletes with spondylolysis who are in the growing period. Therefore, it is considered that the combined use of brace therapy and early physical therapy can maintain flexibility and muscular strength during the brace period and can enable a smooth transit to playing after the bone union is complete.