Is Workload Associated With Oblique Injuries in Professional Baseball Players?

Background

Oblique strains have become a common injury among professional baseball players. The influence of player workload on oblique strains remains unknown.

Purpose/Hypothesis

To determine whether workload is a risk factor for oblique strains in professional baseball players. We hypothesized that fewer days of rest, more innings pitched/fielded per game, and more batters faced/plate appearances per game would significantly increase a player's risk of sustaining an oblique strain.

Study Design

Case-control study; Level of evidence, 3.

Methods

All professional baseball players who sustained an oblique strain between 2011 and 2017 were identified using the Major League Baseball Health and Injury Tracking System. A separate dataset of player usage-days of rest per game, innings pitched or fielded per game, and batters faced or plate appearances per game-was used to determine the workload. We compared these usage variables between player games ≤2, ≤6, ≤12, and >12 weeks before a documented oblique strain with player games from a control group of players with no oblique strains. In a paired analysis, we compared acute (player games ≤2, ≤6, and ≤12 weeks preinjury) versus chronic (player games >12 weeks preinjury) workloads.

Results

There were 311 oblique strains in pitchers and 392 oblique strains in position players during the study period. In pitchers, more innings pitched and more batters faced were associated with a subsequent oblique strain (

Conclusion

Our analysis demonstrated that workload was associated with an increased risk of sustaining an oblique injury in professional baseball players. High workload over time was more predictive of oblique strains compared to acute increases over chronic baseline workload.

Informations de copyright

© The Author(s) 2024.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

One or more of the authors has declared the following potential conflict of interest or source of funding: P.N.C. has received education payments from Active Medical; consulting fees from DePuy Synthes/Medical Device Business Services, Encore Medical, and Responsive Arthroscopy; nonconsulting fees from Arthrex; and hospitality payments from Smith+Nephew. B.J.E. has received grant support from Arthrex; education payments from Pinnacle, Arthrex, and Smith+Nephew; consulting fees from Arthrex and DePuy Synthes; nonconsulting fees from Arthrex; and hospitality payments from Linvatec and Stryker. AOSSM checks author disclosures against the Open Payments Database (OPD). AOSSM has not conducted an independent investigation on the OPD and disclaims any liability or responsibility relating thereto. This study was approved by the MLBPA. Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the University of Utah (ref No. 00114699).