TY - JOUR
T1 - Disc herniations in the national football league
AU - Gray, Benjamin L.
AU - Buchowski, Jacob M.
AU - Bumpass, David B.
AU - Lehman, Ronald A.
AU - Mall, Nathan A.
AU - Matava, Matthew J.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2013 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2013/10/15
Y1 - 2013/10/15
N2 - Study Design. Retrospective analysis of a prospectively collected database. Objective. To determine the overall incidence, location, and type of disc herniations in professional football players to target treatment issues and prevention. Summary of Background Data. Disc herniations represent a common and debilitating injury to the professional athlete. The NFL's (National Football League's) Sports Injury Monitoring System is a surveillance database created to monitor the league for all injuries, including injuries to the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine. Methods. A retrospective analysis was performed on all disc herniations to the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine during a 12-season period (2000-2012) using the NFL's surveillance database. The primary data points included the location of the injury, player position, activity at time of injury, and playing time lost due to injury. Results. During the 12 seasons, 275 disc herniations occurred in the spine. In regard to location, 76% occurred in the lumbar spine and most frequently affected the L5-S1 disc. The offensive linemen were most frequently injured. As expected, blocking was the activity that caused most injuries. Lumbar disc herniations rose in prevalence and had a mean loss of playing time of more than half the season (11 games). Thoracic disc herniations led to the largest mean number of days lost overall, whereas players with cervical disc herniations missed the most practices. Conclusion. Disc herniations represent a signifi cant cause of morbidity in the NFL. Although much attention is placed on spinal cord injuries, preventive measures targeting the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine may help to reduce the overall incidence of these debilitating injuries.
AB - Study Design. Retrospective analysis of a prospectively collected database. Objective. To determine the overall incidence, location, and type of disc herniations in professional football players to target treatment issues and prevention. Summary of Background Data. Disc herniations represent a common and debilitating injury to the professional athlete. The NFL's (National Football League's) Sports Injury Monitoring System is a surveillance database created to monitor the league for all injuries, including injuries to the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine. Methods. A retrospective analysis was performed on all disc herniations to the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine during a 12-season period (2000-2012) using the NFL's surveillance database. The primary data points included the location of the injury, player position, activity at time of injury, and playing time lost due to injury. Results. During the 12 seasons, 275 disc herniations occurred in the spine. In regard to location, 76% occurred in the lumbar spine and most frequently affected the L5-S1 disc. The offensive linemen were most frequently injured. As expected, blocking was the activity that caused most injuries. Lumbar disc herniations rose in prevalence and had a mean loss of playing time of more than half the season (11 games). Thoracic disc herniations led to the largest mean number of days lost overall, whereas players with cervical disc herniations missed the most practices. Conclusion. Disc herniations represent a signifi cant cause of morbidity in the NFL. Although much attention is placed on spinal cord injuries, preventive measures targeting the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine may help to reduce the overall incidence of these debilitating injuries.
KW - American football
KW - National Football League
KW - disc herniation.
KW - injury
KW - spine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84886085334&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/BRS.0b013e3182a67678
DO - 10.1097/BRS.0b013e3182a67678
M3 - Article
C2 - 24026147
AN - SCOPUS:84886085334
SN - 0362-2436
VL - 38
SP - 1934
EP - 1938
JO - Spine
JF - Spine
IS - 22
ER -