Apophyseal injuries in soccer players.

Soccer is the most popular sport worldwide, and it is associated with high injury rates, with most of these injuries occurring in the lower extremities. Particularly, in youth soccer players with immature skeleton, the physeal plate is two to five times weaker than the surrounding fibrous structures, and therefore more vulnerable to injury. The physeal plate consists of epiphyses and apophyses, with the former serving as tendon attachment sites and being subject to traction forces. There are two types of apophyseal injury: (i) apophyseal avulsion, which consists of an acute separation across the physeal plate; and (ii) apophysitis, an injury caused by chronic and repetitive contraction of musculotendon unit, leading to inflammation of the growth plate cartilage. Apophyses of the hip and pelvis are the most commonly injured in youth soccer players, due to vigorous contractions during sports activities and the fact that they tend to fuse later compared to other epiphyseal centers, making them more susceptible to injury. In this review, we will discuss the anatomy of lower limb apophyses and clinical and imaging findings of apophyseal injuries in youth soccer players, as well as briefly review treatment options and complications.

Magnetic resonance imaging reproducibility for rotator cuff partial tears in patients up to 60 years.

BACKGROUND: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the gold standard in diagnosing rotator cuff pathology; however, there is a lack of studies investigating the reliability agreement for supraspinatus partial-thickness tears among orthopaedic surgeons and musculoskeletal (MSK) radiologists. METHODS: Sixty digital MRI scans (1.5 Tesla) were reviewed by two orthopaedic shoulder surgeons, two MSK radiologists, two fellowship-trained shoulder surgeons, and two fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeons at two distinct times. Thirty-two scans of partial-thickness tears and twenty-eight scans of the supraspinatus tendon with no tears were included. Supraspinatus tendonosis and tears, long head of the biceps pathology, acromial morphology, acromioclavicular joint pathology and muscle fatty infiltration were assessed and interpreted according to the Goutallier system. After a four-week interval, the evaluators were asked to review the same scans in a different random order. The statistical analyses for the intra- and interobserver agreement results were calculated using the kappa value and 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: The intraobserver agreement for supraspinatus tears was moderate among the MSK radiologists (k = 0.589; 95% CI, 0.446-0.732) and the orthopaedic shoulder surgeons (k = 0.509; 95% CI, 0.324-0.694) and was fair among the fellowship-trained shoulder surgeons (k = 0.27; 95% CI, 0.048-0.492) and the fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeons (k = 0.372; 95% CI, 0.152-0.592). The overall intraobserver agreement was good (k = 0.627; 95% CI, 0.576-0.678). The intraobserver agreement was moderate for biceps tendonosis (k = 0.491), acromial morphology (k = 0.526), acromioclavicular joint arthrosis (k = 0.491) and muscle fatty infiltration (k = 0.505). The interobserver agreement results for supraspinatus tears were fair and poor among the evaluators: the MSK radiologists and the orthopaedic shoulder surgeons had the highest agreement (k = 0.245; 95% CI, 0.055-0.435). CONCLUSIONS: In this sample of digital MRI scans, there was an overall good intraobserver agreement for supraspinatus partial tears; however, there were also poor and fair interobserver agreement results. The evaluators with higher levels of experience (the orthopaedic shoulder surgeons and the MSK radiologists) demonstrated better results than evaluators with lower levels of experience.