LAUSR

Background Soccer related injuries are often reported in studies, but epidemiological research on this theme is rare in Brazil, Furthermore, the conditions in which athletes have returned to sports practice, namely, either symptomatic or asymptomatic, have been neglected in research. Objectives The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiological features of injuries among professional Brazilian soccer players in relation to location, type, mechanism, severity, recurrence, treatment and, lastly, symptoms in return to sport. Study design Descriptive and cross-sectional, observational study. Study center School of Physical Therapy of the University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Methods 116 male professional athletes of teams from a Brazilian state championship were interviewed and information about injuries was recorded using a retrospective reported morbidity questionnaire. Data were analyzed in mean ± SD for physical characteristics and sports practice history in absolute and relative frequencies (chi-square test with Bonferroni's correction) for characterization of soccer injuries in terms of type, location, severity, recurrence and symptoms in return to sport. Results The numbers of injuries per athlete and per injured athlete were 0.92 and 1.43 respectively. The injuries of muscle-tendon unit and the joint types localized on lower limbs constituted the most important clinical occurrences with significant difference both in relation to other types (p < 0.05). Moderate and severe injuries were the most frequent occurrences. In relation to mechanisms for each type of injury, body contact was at least three times more responsible for injury cases. This type of mechanism was associated with a significantly greater impairment of joint structures. Concerning occurrence and recurrence of cases, the number of recurrent injuries of the muscle-tendon unit reached about 7.5% of the first-time injuries, while the number of joint recurrent injuries integrated almost 40% of the first-time cases. Significant differences between first-time injuries and recurrent injuries were found only for muscle-tendon and joint structures (p < 0.05), while significant differences among the type of injuries within each type of occurrence (first-time or recurrent injuries) were also found between muscle-tendon and joint injuries (p < 0.05). In relation to athletes with symptoms, in return to sport, 77.6% of them were treated for their injuries but more than half of them returned with symptoms still present when compared to those who returned without any symptoms. Among athletes who did not receive treatment, a lower percentage (58.3%) returned to the sport with symptoms still present. Significant associations between treatment and symptomatology were not found.