[Analysis of muscle injuries and return-to-training in elite Taekwondo athletes: results of a prospective cohort study over a period of five years]. / Analyse von Muskelverletzungen und "Return-to-Training" im Elite-Taekwondo ­ Ergebnisse einer prospektiven Kohortenstudie über einen Zeitraum von 5 Jahren.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Muscle injuries frequently occur in sports involving explosive movement patterns, and they can cause considerable downtime. There is a lack of detailed data on muscle injuries in Olympic elite Taekwondo. METHODS: All injuries sustained by 76 elite Taekwondo athletes from a national Olympic training centre during training and competition were prospectively recorded over a period of five years. Data on muscle injuries, including location and time elapsed until return-to-training, were extracted from medical records. Injuries were diagnosed by means of MRI and were classified according to the British Athletes Muscle Injury System. The relationship between MRI classification subgroups and time elapsed until return-to-training was assessed. RESULTS: Mean age of athletes was 22.5 ±â€Š3.2 (16-27) years with an average Taekwondo experience of 12.1 ±â€Š4.0 (7-20) years. Hamstring muscles were most commonly injured (48.4 %), followed by quadriceps muscles (32.3 %) and calf muscles (9.6 %). The analysis of MRI injury subgroups showed grade 1 (32.2 %) and grade 2 (41.9 %) injuries in most cases. A positive correlation was found between injury groups and return-to-training (r = 0.56). The comparison between different injury groups and time elapsed until return-to-training also revealed significant differences (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Hamstring muscles are the most injured muscles in Taekwondo besides the quadriceps femoris muscle. Most injuries were mild to moderate (grade 1-2). The time needed for return-to-training increased significantly with the severity of injuries diagnosed by MRI.