Journal Club: Orthopedic Sport Edition

Journal Club is the first of a repeating segment to help us on the mission of improving your skill set.  The idea for this segment came out of the actual journal club meetings that my colleagues and I participate in at our institution as part of our orthopedic residency program.  We enjoy the casual, evidenced based discussion over lunch.  It's great camaraderie and it has sharpened us as therapists.  I will work to include not only orthopedic information in Journal Club but also other pertinent articles related to other physical therapy fields as well.

Today's topic for Journal Club is a common issue among athletes, weekend warriors, exercise addicts, and the general public.  The hamstring injury.  I'm sure we have all pulled a hammy and we know that they are not fun.  We also know that they can be really tricky to rehab.

Our journal club recently discussed three different articles concerning the etiology of hamstring injuries as well as some new evidence in how to best manage hamstring injuries.  There is a wealth of information in these articles from the best exercises to use to information on how to best classify the hamstring injury based on the examination.  I would really encourage you to peruse through these articles.

                  Hamstring Injury Overview       Rehab Protocol Comparison        Rehab vs. Plasma Injection  

One of the most fascinating finds to me was the significant difference in treatment in utilizing lengthening exercises or more eccentric load exercises compared to what the British Journal of Sports Medicine described as conventional exercises.  Patients in the lengthening category were able to return to sport on a mean of 28 days sooner than the conventional group!  In addition, those lengthening exercises were better than injections.  Cool stuff.

It is this kind of fascinating and important information we can use to synthesize a treatment plan and put the new information into practice in order to improve our patient's return to function. So take this information into practice with this week!

Jason

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