High-level Football Players Research Articles

Injury to the proximal deep medial collateral ligament

Most injuries to the medial collateral ligament (MCL) heal well after conservative treatment. We have identified a subgroup of injuries to the deep portion of the MCL which is refractory to conservative treatment and causes persistant symptoms. They usually occur in high-level football players and may require surgical repair. We describe a consecutive series of 17 men with a mean age of 29 years (18 to 44) who were all engaged in high levels of sport. Following a minor injury to the MCL there was persistent tenderness at the site of the proximal attachment of the deep MCL. It could be precipitated by rapid external rotation at the knee by clinical testing or during sport. The mean time from injury to presentation was 23.6 weeks (10 to 79) and none of the patients had responded to conservative treatment. The surgical finding was a failure of healing of a tear of the deep MCL at its femoral origin which could be repaired. After a period of postoperative protective bracing and subsequent rehabilitation the outcome was good. All the patients returned to their sports and remained asymptomatic at a mean of 48 weeks (28 to 60) post-operatively. Recognition of this subgroup is important since the clinical features, the course of recovery and surgical requirement differ from those of most injuries to the MCL.

143 Echocardiographic assessment of cardiac remodeling in the high-level football player

The aim of this study is to assess the morphological and hemodynamic cardiovascular changes of 24 high-level football players, using Doppler-echocar-diography, and compare them to a similar control group. Twenty-four elite football players were matched to 24 normal subjects according to age, sex, and body surface. All participants had a clinical examination, resting ECG, Doppler-echocardiography and a measurement of maximal oxygen uptake (VO 2 max). The echocardiographic variables were compared between two groups by the Student's t-test and other statistical tests, using the SPSS 12 for Windows software. Compared to the control group, the wall thickness (10.49+1.04 vs. 7.5+2.04 mm, p<0.05), the LV end-diastolic diameter (57.1+3.70 vs. 41.2+3.65 mm, p<0.01) and left atrium surface (20.16+2.03 vs. 16.16+1.83 cm 2, p<0.01) were significantly more important in football players. The LV and RV ejection fractions were similar in both groups. The RV long-axis diastolic diameter (8+0.5 vs. 6.5+1.1 mm, p<0.01) and S-wave using DTI (0.17+0.02 vs. 0.14+0.02, p<0.05) were more important among football players. This study on the cardiac remodeling in high-level athletes permits to have a distinctive approach between physiological and pathological remodeling. This remodeling varies according to the player's post and exercise capacities. In a football player, a correlation between physical level and physical capacity is plausible.