The epidemiology of foot injuries in professional rugby union players

Background

Foot injuries represent a small but important proportion of injuries to professional rugby union players. There are no detailed epidemiological studies regarding these injuries. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiology of foot injuries sustained by a cohort of professional rugby union players and identify areas that may be targeted for injury prevention in the future.

Methods

Medical personnel prospectively recorded injuries in professional Premiership rugby union players in England over four seasons. Injuries to the foot were identified and the time away from training and playing was reported.

Results

A total of 147 foot injuries were sustained resulting in 3542 days of absence in total. Acute events accounted for 73% of all foot injuries, with chronic, mostly overuse conditions, accounting for 25% (undiagnosed 2%). Chronic conditions led to proportionately more time away from training and playing (p = <0.001). Specifically, stress fractures in the foot accounted for 8% of the total foot injuries but 22% of the absence. Navicular stress fractures had the longest recovery time with the mean return to training and match play of 188 days.

Conclusion

In collision sports such as rugby, some injuries may be inevitable but clinicians should always be seeking ways to minimise their occurrence and impact. This study revealed a high proportion of morbidity associated with chronic and overuse foot injuries in these professional athletes. With greater attention paid to risk factors, some of these injuries, and importantly, recurrent injuries may be avoided.     

The effect of aerobic exercise on treatment‐related acute toxicity in men receiving radical external beam radiotherapy for localised prostate cancer

KAPUR G., WINDSOR P.M. & Mc COWAN C. (2010) European Journal of Cancer Care 19 , 643–647 The effect of aerobic exercise on treatment‐related acute toxicity in men receiving radical external beam radiotherapy for localised prostate cancer We retrospectively analysed acute radiation toxicity data for patients who had participated in a randomised controlled study in our centre in order to assess the impact of aerobic exercise on acute rectal and bladder morbidity during treatment. Data from 65 of 66 patients were analysed: 33 allocated into a control group (standard advice) and 33 into an exercise group (aerobic walking for 30 min at least three times per week) during 4 weeks of external beam radiotherapy; one patient in the exercise group withdrew after randomisation before starting radiotherapy. There was a trend towards less severe acute rectal toxicity in the exercise group with a statistically significant difference in mean toxicity scores over the 4 weeks of radiotherapy (P = 0.004), with no significant difference in bladder toxicity scores between the two groups (P = 0.123). The lack of an association for severity of bladder toxicity could be attributed to the confounding effect of lower urinary tract symptoms from their prostate cancer. Keeping active and being asked to adhere to a well‐defined exercise schedule appears to reduce the severity of rectal toxicity during radiotherapy to the prostate.