July 2021 Journal Roundup
his month, we review all of July’s Sports Medicine Journals all in one place here on the sports medicine review.
THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPORTS MEDICINE (JULY 2021)
- The FIFA 11+S program resulted in 50% fewer upper extremity injuries among soccer goalkeepers, compared with a regular warm-up.
- This study showed that PRP decreased pain and improved shoulder ROM and function to an extent comparable with that of a corticosteroid in patients with AC.
- Allogenic pure PRP acted in a pleiotropic manner and decreased proinflammatory cytokines only in the inflammatory condition.
- Although a small, immediate clinical response to IGF-1 injections was seen when combined with training, no additional long-term effect of intratendinous IGF-1 was observed on structural and clinical outcomes in patients with patellar tendinopathy.
- Complete native stability may not be attainable at time zero repair with the tested treatments.
- The option that best returned stability in anterior translation was augmented ATFL repair with nonaugmented CFL repair.
- The importance of the CFL as a primary ligamentous stabilizer for talar tilt was confirmed.
- Postoperative infection was rare in patients undergoing intra-articular hip injection ≤3 months before hip arthroscopy and was no more common than in patients not undergoing preoperative injection.
- Moreover, no differences were seen in infection risk between US and FL guidance.
- Although intra-articular hip injections should always be administered with careful consideration, these results do not suggest that these injections are uniformly contraindicated in the 3 months preceding hip arthroscopy.
- The current study demonstrates that LP-PRP reduces the rate of retear and/or incomplete tendon healing after ARCR and improves patient-reported outcomes as compared with a control.
- However, it is still unclear whether LP-PRP improves the tendon healing rate when compared with LR-PRP.
- Patients with a wrist sprain diagnosis were followed for an average of 10 years.
- Although the majority (96%) of patients required a median of 14 days with limited upper extremity function, MRI is rarely indicated in the acute setting and most patients will never have another wrist injury and can expect excellent wrist recovery outcomes.
- The findings indicate that individual Vestibular/Ocular Motor Screening (VOMS) items and overall VOMS scores are useful in identifying concussion in collegiate athletes within 3 days of injury.
- Clinicians can use the cutoffs from this study to help identify concussion in collegiate athletes.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF SPORTS MEDICINE (JULY 2021)
- Future interventions should include targeted strategies to address the needs of girls and older students.
- Interventions may also be improved by promoting more vigorous intensity physical activity.
- Interventions could mitigate declining youth cardiorespiratory fitness, increase physical activity and promote cardiovascular health if they can be delivered equitably and their effects sustained at the population level.

Image 1. A meta-analysis of behavior change interventions to increase men’s physical activity[1]https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/55/14
- There is not one superior type of physical exercise for people with chronic non-specific neck pain.
- Rather, there is very low quality evidence that motor control, yoga/Pilates/Tai Chi/Qigong and strengthening exercises are equally effective.
- These findings may assist clinicians to select exercises for people with chronic non-specific neck pain.
- Overall incidence was 12.0 per 1000 hours (95% CI 11.3 to 12.7).
- Injury patterns differed with age; tailoring prevention programs may be possible.

Image 2. Covid 19 testing for elite athletes[2]https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/55/14
SPORTS MEDICINE (JULY 2021)
- This review provides evidence that demographic factors such as female sex, young age (≤ 18 years) and family history of ACL injury, as well as early reconstruction and returning to a high activity level increase the risk of C-ACL injury.
- Given the lack of studies related to neuromuscular factors that may be modifiable by training, future studies are warranted that investigate the possible role of factors such as dynamic knee stability and alignment, muscle activation and/or strength and proprioception as well as sport-specific training prior to return-to-sport for C-ACL injuries.
- Patients who delayed reporting or continued play had longer recovery times compared to their immediately-reporting peers.
- Providers should ask concussion patients approximately how long they waited to report their injury, and also focus educational efforts on encouraging immediate reporting of concussion.
- Overall, the selected papers indicated that mental fatigue (MF) negatively affects sport-specific psychomotor performance (SSPP).
- Research that assesses brain function, while evaluating the effect of MF on SSPP is essential to create further insight.
SPORTS HEALTH JOURNAL (July/August 2021)
- We found no significant improvement in soccer-related performance with caffeine compared with placebo or no intervention.
- However, caffeine appears to be safe.
- The repetitions-to-failure test is a valid method of predicting the 1RM during the concentric-only and touch-and-go bench press variants.
- However, the accuracy of the prediction could be compromised with weaker and less experienced individuals and if more than 10 repetitions are completed during the repetitions-to-failure test.
- BPPV is fairly common in pediatric concussion, occurring in one-third of the patients studied.
- BPPV is often not diagnosed and treated until many weeks after the injury.
- Increased awareness of the evaluation and management of BPPV among pediatric concussion providers may help expedite resolution of dizziness and hasten overall recovery in affected patients.
- Fasciotomy is an effective treatment of CECS, with our study identifying certain patient variables leading to greater functional improvement.
- Multiple linear regression analysis revealed deep posterior compartment involvement, younger age, a history of depression, and male sex to be significant independent predictors of enhanced improvement after fasciotomy.
CURRENT SPORTS MEDICINE REPORTS (July 2021)
- In addition to strength gains, research has shown that creatine supplementation may provide additional benefits including enhanced postexercise recovery, injury prevention, rehabilitation, as well as a number of potential neurologic benefits that may be relevant to sports
- Current evidence demonstrates improved athlete recovery with compression garments, cold water immersion, partial body cryotherapy, hyperbaric oxygen, and vibratory therapies.
- Other popular modalities, such as compression devices, whole body cryotherapy, percussive gun-assisted therapy, neuromuscular electrical stimulation, and pulsed electromagnetic therapy lack convincing evidence concerning athlete recovery