Management of lumbar bone stress injury in cricket fast bowlers and other athletes

Navigating the AI Innovation: A Publisher's Balancing Act with Fundamental Principles

No abstract 

A similar injury profile observed in franchise men's and women's cricket in England and Wales: injury surveillance analysis from the first three 'The Hundred' competitions

Objectives

To describe the injury profile of a novel format cricket competition ('The Hundred') and compare injury incidence and prevalence between the men's and women's competitions.

Methods

Medical staff prospectively collected injury data from the eight men's and women's teams during the 2021-2023 competitions. Injury definitions and incidence calculations followed the international consensus statement.

Results

In the men's competition, 164 injuries were recorded, compared with 127 in the women's competition. Tournament injury incidence was 36.6 (95% CI 31.4 to 42.7) and 32.5 (95% CI 27.3 to 38.7)/100 players/tournament in the men's and women's competition, respectively. Non-time-loss incidence (men's 26.6 (95% CI 22.2 to 31.8), women's 24.6 (95% CI 20.1 to 30.0)/100 players/tournament) was higher than time-loss incidence (men's 10.0 (95% CI 7.5 to 13.5), women's 7.9 (95% CI 5.6 to 11.3)/100 players/tournament). Injury prevalence was 2.9% and 3.6% in the men's and women's competitions, respectively. Match fielding was the most common activity at injury in both competitions. The thigh and hand were the most common body location time-loss injury in the men's and women's competitions, respectively.

Conclusion

A similar injury profile was observed between the men's and women's competition. Preventative strategies targeting thigh injuries in the men's competition and hand injuries in the women's competition would be beneficial. Compared with published injury rates, 'The Hundred' men's presents a greater risk of injury than Twenty20 (T20), but similar to one-day cricket, with 'The Hundred' women's presenting a similar injury risk to T20 and one-day cricket. Additional years of data are required to confirm these findings.

Intrinsic variables associated with low back pain and lumbar spine injury in fast bowlers in cricket: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Lumbar spine injuries in fast bowlers account for the greatest missed playing time in cricket. A range of extrinsic and intrinsic variables are hypothesised to be associated with low back pain and lumbar spine injury in fast bowlers, and an improved understanding of intrinsic variables is necessary as these may alter load tolerance and injury risk associated with fast bowling. This review critically evaluated studies reporting intrinsic variables associated with low back pain and lumbar spine injury in fast bowlers and identified areas for future investigation.

METHODS

OVID Medline, EMBASE, SPORTDiscus, CINAHL, Web of Science and SCOPUS databases were last searched on 3 June 2022 to identify studies investigating intrinsic variables associated with low back pain and lumbar spine injury in cricket fast bowlers. Terms relevant to cricket fast bowling, and intrinsic variables associated with lumbar spine injury and low back pain in fast bowlers were searched. 1,503 abstracts were screened, and 118 full-text articles were appraised to determine whether they met inclusion criteria. Two authors independently screened search results and assessed risk of bias using a modified version of the Quality in Prognostic Studies tool.

RESULTS

Twenty-five studies met the inclusion criteria. Overall, no included studies demonstrated a low risk of bias, two studies were identified as moderate risk, and twenty-three studies were identified as high risk. Conflicting results were reported amongst studies investigating associations of fast bowling kinematics and kinetics, trunk and lumbar anatomical features, anthropometric traits, age, and neuromuscular characteristics with low back pain and lumbar spine injury.

CONCLUSION

Inconsistencies in results may be related to differences in study design, injury definitions, participant characteristics, measurement parameters, and statistical analyses. Low back pain and lumbar spine injury occurrence in fast bowlers remain high, and this may be due to an absence of low bias studies that have informed recommendations for their prevention. Future research should employ clearly defined injury outcomes, analyse continuous datasets, utilise models that better represent lumbar kinematics and kinetics during fast bowling, and better quantify previous injury, lumbar anatomical features and lumbar maturation.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Open Science Framework https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/ERKZ2 .