Incidence des équipements modernes sur les lésions traumatiques du membre inférieur chez le rugbyman

Abstract

Our study concerned the rugby players from Var area in the south of France. These players were graduated in all the categories during the season 2008–2009. We tried to compare the impact: first of the rugby shoes with blade studs versus classic studs and second the training on synthetic rugby field versus natural rugby field, on the increase in lower limb injuries. Indeed, the incidence of these wounds does not stop increasing since the rugby professionalization in spite of the preventives measures. Our study demonstrates that the users of shoes with blades studs presented more knee injuries and precisely more anterior cruciate ligament (P=0.04) and these hurts occurred without opponent contact (P=0.02) while they occurred during a tackle in the group of shoes with classics studs. We noticed more tendinitis on synthetic rugby field than on natural rugby field (P=0.04), even there the type of shoe contributed to these injuries, indeed no players used the turf shoes on synthetic rugby field. So we suggest to limit the use of shoes with blade studs and to decrease the trainings on synthetic rugby field and especially the alternation between synthetic and natural rugby field.