Athlete presentations and injury frequency by sport at a sports medicine university clinic

Abstract

Background: We aimed to investigate the profile of athletes by determining the branch of sports, type, and area of sustained sports injury, and the frequencies through athletes' presentations to the largest university clinic in one of the most crowded and athlete-populated cities of Turkey, Istanbul.

Methods: The study population comprised 1302 athletes who presented to the sports medicine clinic between the dates of July 1st, 2014, and June 30th, 2015. This record-based study examined all athlete presentations using the physical examination cards.

Results: Eight hundred and sixty-five of the athletes were male. The median age of applicants was 21 years (interquartile range 16-30 years), the median body mass index was 22.23 kg/m2 (range, 20.01-24.67 kg/m2), and the median years of sports activity was 5 years (range, 0-10 years). Presentations to the clinic were significantly higher in April (p=0.003). The most commonly injured body part was the knee and soccer was the leading sport among the patients; anterior cruciate ligament injury was the most common pathology among soccer players.

Conclusions: Athletes who presented to our clinic most commonly sustained a lower extremity injury. It was notable that ligament injuries were seen as commonly as muscle injuries.