Abstract

BackgroundCalcaneal apophysitis, or Sever's disease, is the most common cause of heel pain in childhood and adolescence. It is regarded as an overuse syndrome. Studies on the incidence of calcaneal apophysitis in young athletes and their associated return-to-play time are lacking in the current literature. The aim of our current study was to identify the incidence of calcaneal apophysitis in professional youth soccer, the associated time to return-to-play, predisposing factors and their impact on time to return-to-play.MethodsRetrospective evaluation of injury data gathered from a German youth soccer academy in the years 2009–2018. In total, 4326 injury cases in 612 players were included in the study. The diagnosis and the follow-up visits were carried out in a weekly consultation hour at the youth academy.ResultsDuring the observation period of 10 years, 22 cases of calcaneal apophysitis were detected. The incidence of calcaneal apophysitis per 100 athletes per year was found to be 0.36. The mean age of the affected athletes at the time of diagnosis was 11.8 ± 2.1 years (MW ± SD). The complaints were unilateral in 20 and bilateral in two cases. Three of the 22 detected cases of calcaneal apophysitis (13.6%) were recurrent injuries. The mean time to return-to-play of the affected athletes was 60.7 ± 64.9 days (MW ± SD). Athletes with recurrent complaints showed longer recovery time and time to return-to-play when compared to players with primary diagnosed disease. Our results could show that neither age nor body mass index at the time of diagnosis had an impact on time to return-to-play.ConclusionsThis is the first study investigating the incidence of calcaneal apophysitis and the associated time to return-to-play in youth elite soccer. Calcaneal apophysitis results in substantial time loss for the athletes. Further prospective clinical studies are required to fully understand the etiology and risk factors for calcaneal apophysitis and therefore develop preventive strategies.

Highlights

  • Calcaneal apophysitis— known as Sever’s disease— is the most common cause of posterior heel pain in children and adolescents [1]

  • 22 cases of calcaneal apophysitis were diagnosed in 19 athletes

  • 0.51% of all musculoskeletal complaints were diagnosed as calcaneal apophysitis

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Calcaneal apophysitis— known as Sever’s disease— is the most common cause of posterior heel pain in children and adolescents [1]. Belikan et al Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research (2022) 17:83 on the calcaneal apophysis by the calf muscles through the Achilles tendon. This in order leads to calcaneal apophysis damage with small avulsion fractures followed by local inflammation [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. Sever’s disease, is the most common cause of heel pain in childhood and adolescence. It is regarded as an overuse syndrome. The aim of our current study was to identify the incidence of calcaneal apophysitis in professional youth soccer, the associated time to return-to-play, predisposing factors and their impact on time to return-to-play

Objectives
Methods
Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call