Higher frequency of hamstring injuries in elite track and field athletes who had a previous injury to the ankle - a 17 years observational cohort study

Nikolaos Malliaropoulos,Heinz Lohrer,Nicola Maffulli,Maria Meke,Nat Padhiar,Georgios Bikos,Korakakis Vasileios,Xavier Valle

doi:10.1186/s13047-018-0247-4

Abstract

BackgroundInversion injury to the ankle and hamstring injuries are common problems in most sports. It is not known whether these injuries constitute a predisposing factor or a precursor of injury or re-injury of these anatomical locations. Therefore, we wished to test the hypothesis that a previous inversion ankle injury exerted a significant effect on the chance of an athlete suffering from a subsequent ipsilateral hamstring injury and vice versa.MethodsIn an observational cohort study over 17 years (1998–2015), 367 elite track and field athletes, were grouped according to their first traumatic isolated ankle or hamstring injury. Fifty athletes experienced both injuries. The Mann-Whitney U and Chi-square tests (p < 0.05) were performed to test possible associations of ankle and hamstring injury with age, gender, athletics discipline, grade, and type of antecedent injury.ResultsAthletes with a preceding ankle injury had a statistically significantly higher chance of experiencing a subsequent hamstring injury compared with athletes who had experienced a hamstring injury as their first traumatic event (x2 = 4.245, p = 0.039). The proportion of both ankle and hamstring injury events was not statistically different between female (18%) and male (11%) athletes. Age and grade of injury did not influence the proportion of ankle and/or hamstring injury events.ConclusionThere is a statistically significantly higher frequency of hamstring injuries in elite track and field athletes having experienced a previous ankle ligament injury.

Highlights

Ankle sprains and hamstring muscle injuries are among the most common sport injuries, and are a major cause of time lost from sport participation [1,2,3,4,5].The main mechanisms of hamstring injury is eccentric contraction at high velocity and slow stretching at outer range of motion [6]
What is known about the subject? To our knowledge, this is the first study that assessed the association between ankle and hamstring injuries and their predisposing role that each one of them has in a re-injury affecting the other location
Athletes with a previous ankle injury face a higher risk of hamstring injury

Summary

Introduction

Ankle sprains and hamstring muscle injuries are among the most common sport injuries, and are a major cause of time lost from sport participation [1,2,3,4,5].The main mechanisms of hamstring injury is eccentric contraction at high velocity and slow stretching at outer range of motion [6]. Ankle sprains and hamstring muscle injuries are among the most common sport injuries, and are a major cause of time lost from sport participation [1,2,3,4,5]. Lateral ankle sprains are usually provoked by excessive foot inversion with the foot in plantar flexion [11]. Certain somatometric factors such as higher longitudinal foot arch, wider foot, cavovarus deformities of the foot may be associated with this injury [12]. Inversion injury to the ankle and hamstring injuries are common problems in most sports. We wished to test the hypothesis that a previous inversion ankle injury exerted a significant effect on the chance of an athlete suffering from a subsequent ipsilateral hamstring injury and vice versa

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion