A manual therapy technique for chronic adductor-related groin pain in athletes: a case series

The objective was to retrospectively examine whether a manual therapy technique is effective in the treatment of chronic adductor-related groin pain in athletes. Thirty-three athletes with chronic adductor-related groin pain were approached. Thirty patients gave their consent to participate in the study. Patient satisfaction, return to activity and numeric pain score were recorded. Patients were treated after prewarming of the muscles; one hand is used to control the tension in the adductor muscles and the other hand is used to move the hip into abduction and external rotation. This flowing, circular motion stretches the adductor muscle group. The movement is repeated three times in one treatment session. Twenty-five out of 30 (83%) athletes reported a good or excellent satisfaction. Twenty-seven out of 30 (90%) athletes had resumed sport at (15/30) or below (12/30) their previous level of activity. The pain score for during or after activity decreased significantly from 8.7 to 2.2 after the treatment ( P <0.01). This study shows that the manual therapy treatment might be a promising treatment for chronic adductor-related groin pain in athletes.