Vigorous sports activities, such as basketball during childhood and adolescence, can cause abnormal development of the femur in young athletes, resulting in a deformed hip with reduced rotation and pain during movement. This may explain why athletes are more likely to develop osteoarthritis than more sedentary individuals, according to Klaus Siebenrock, MD, from the University of Bern in Switzerland, whose work is published in Springer’s journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research.
Siebenrock and colleagues found that osteoarthritis of the hip was more prevalent in high-level athletes than in those who do not take part in regular sports. It is also linked to higher intensity activities and greater physical loading of the hip. He noted other investigations have found that male athletes, particularly those who play soccer and handball, and take part in competitive track and field activities involving running and jumping, are at greater risk of early osteoarthritis of the hip.
Siebenrock and colleagues compared the prevalence of cam-type hip deformity in high-intensity athletes during childhood and adolescence and age-matched controls. Cam-type hip deformity is a condition characterized by abnormal bone development on the head of the femur affecting contact between the femur and the hip socket. They looked at the physical condition and ROM of 72 hips in 37 male professional basketball players and 76 hips in 38 control participants who had not participated in high-level sports.
"Our data suggest that this hip deformity is in part a developmental deformity, and its expression in young adulthood may be triggered by environmental factors such as high-level sports activity during childhood and around the time of closure of the femoral growth plate," said Siebenrock and colleagues.
[Source: Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research via Medical News Today]
