Unusual Orthopaedic Injuries from the World's Most Popular Sport.

Abstract

When it comes to numbers of participants and spectators, there’s little doubt that soccer is the world’s most popular sport. It makes sense, then, that soccer sees its share of musculoskeletal injuries. The majority of soccer injuries affect the feet and legs, with sprains, strains, and ligament injuries of the knees and ankles being the most common. This month’s “Case Connections” focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of four not-so-common soccer injuries. In the December 10, 2014, JBJS Case Connector, Huri et al. present the case of a teenage professional soccer player with a chronic rupture of the rectus femoris muscle. The initial injury had occurred two years earlier when he kicked another player’s foot instead of the ball. Nonoperative approaches had not facilitated a return to running or kicking. At the time of presentation, doctors noted a prominence on the right thigh that was suggestive of a proximal rupture and distal displacement of the rectus femoris muscle. At an isokinetic speed of 240°/sec, the knee extension strength difference between the injured and normal limbs was 40%; pain prevented the patient from being tested at other isokinetic speeds. MRI of the thigh revealed extensive soft-tissue edema and a complete avulsion of the reflected head of the rectus femoris. Figure 1 shows the rupture location preoperatively and intraoperatively. Fig. 1 Arrows indicate the location of the rectus femoris rupture preoperatively (top) and intraoperatively (bottom). Intraoperatively, surgeons moved the muscle belly proximally as far as possible …