Rugby à XV, sport de combat, rachis lombaire et croissance. Réflexion sur croissance, sport précoce de haut niveau et atteintes rachidiennes lombaires précoces

Abstract

We conducted a retrospective analysis of the lumbar spine in young rugby players. The series included 62 young players enrolled in high-level training programs and 33 players in a training school. The medial files of these players showed a significant number with lumbar spine lesions, 42% and 85% respectively. We propose here an anatomic analysis focusing on temporary mechanical incompetence of the lumbar segment during periods of rapid growth. Based on data in the literature, we show that when practised intensively by young athletes, sports such as rugby implying spinal stress have a traumatic effect on the lumbar vertebro-discal system with subsequent deleterious mid-term effects. In our opinion, this problem should be examined closely for categories aged under 15 years so that the conditions of sports’ practice can be adapted using modern high-performance diagnostic methods to enable harmonious growth and avoid early disc and spine degeneration. The lesions we discovered started earlier to be visible in the current study and will evolve later. All were not symptomatic. This spinal involvement may not have a deleterious effect until a few years later. The risk is to compromise later participation in high-level professional sports. Undeniably, if complementary studies confirm these early findings, sports’ practice in growing youth will have to be adapted.