Epidemiology of sportive injuries in basketball wheelchair players

Abstract

Sportive activity for people with disabilities has been developed in order to be recreative and rehabilitative however, for some people, the sport rises a competitive aspiration. In such situations, an excessive number of training sessions and competitions may lead to an increased risk of sport injuries, which, according to the literature, is similar in disabled and able-bodied athletes. Objective: To identify the most frequent sport injuries of basketball wheelchair players. Patients and method: an interview was conducted with 26 male wheelchair basketball athletes, whose age varied from 18 to 47 years (mean: 27 years), and who participated in the state championship in 2003. Biodemographic data, as well as the etiology of the injury, weekly time spent with the sport and training activities, previous injuries during the sport practice and periods without sport practice due to those injuries, pain intensity evaluated by the visual analogue scale. Results: spinal cord injury corresponded to 42% of the patient, poliomielites to 31%, lower limb amputation to 27%. Sport practice varied form 2 months to 13 years, with an average of 6.5 years. Mean training periods was 21 hours weekly. Pain complaint was present in 54%of these athletes , being mostly localized in the upper limbs (79%). Only 6% of the sample had never had an injury during a game or training. Of the 11 spinal cord injured patients, 3 (27%) were not playing because of pressure sores (isquiadic, sacral and paravertebral). Among the musculosqueletal injuries, 75% were installed acutely, and 25% due to chronic repetitive efforts. Discussion: many studies comment about the increased incidence of musculoskeletal affections in wheelchair competitors, followed by pain in the upper extremity, mainly in the shoulder. Sprains and strains of metacarpophalangeal joints are the acute injuries and tendonitis are the repetitive strain injuries mostly described. The period of prevention from training in 52% of patients is less than 7 days, in 29% between 8 and 21 days, and in 19% of the athletes it is more than 22 days. Many authors mention that pressure sores prevent sport activities in spinal cord injured athletes. Our study showed similar results.