Midsummer

July 8, 2015 by

mo and me beaver island

The joys of summer!

July 4th is in the rear-view mirror, and for those of in the USA, that means the glass is half empty (or full): summer has hit the halfway mark.

In many respects, in the sports medicine world we’re well past the halfway point, because August two-a-days and hitting in football begin, at least here in Ohio, precisely four weeks from today.  Then the ‘busy season’ begins.

But we still have July to enjoy – in a slightly more leisurely fashion – such offerings as Wimbledon, the Open golf championship at St. Andrews, and, of course, the new issue of CJSM: Volume 25, issue #4 was published one week ago.

Do check this out, as there are several significant offerings on board this issue.  First and foremost is the publication of the statement from the 3rd International Exercise-associated Hyponatremia (EAH) Consensus Development Conference. This statement has been gathering a lot of buzz in the mainstream and social media, as has the accompanying editorial written by Dr. Mitchell Rosner of the Univ. of Virginia.   The Washington Post published a good review of the statement’s published findings, for instance, and the message to “Drink To Thirst” and avoid overhydration is making its way over various media channels…..including iTunes!  If you haven’t checked out the podcast conversation I had with the statement’s lead author, Dr. Tami Hew, by all means listen in here.

There is, as ever, some exciting original research in this issue as well, including a study of the incidence of EAH in ultramarathoners: in work coming out of Australia, a 2% incidence of EAH was found in ultramarathoners competing in the Cradle Mountain Run in Tasmania, Australia.  And so……EAH may be seeing us more than we are seeing it!!!!

Another very exciting study in this month’s journal is a high quality (Level 1), randomized clinical trial comparing various techniques of ACL reconstruction, with patient-reported and clinical outcomes with 2+ years of follow-up. This is fabulous stuff–no spoiler alert here, as the offering is currently FREE – and so click on that link and read the study yourself to see what differences there may be between double bundle, patellar tendon, and hamstring tendon grafts.

Whether you’re by the pool, a lake, the ocean….or you’re in clinic (as some of us must still be!)–enjoy your summer, and enjoy the July 2015 CJSM.

Filed under General Interest Tagged with , , ,

5 Questions with Christian Baumgart

April 28, 2015 by

Baumgart, Christian

Christian Baumgart, lead author of new study, Pubished Ahead of Print

It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to ask a guest ‘5 questions,’ a recurring feature of this blog.  Our May issue is still a few days from being published…..too soon for guests!  And so I thought it was time to give readers a taste of our ‘Published Online First’ feature.

Once a manuscript has passed CJSM’s rigorous peer review process, ‘made the grade’ and been accepted, it is still a few months away from being published in print.  Like many journals, we have a healthy backlog of manuscripts which have been accepted but await publication.

But it’s not too soon for the authors to break out the champagne, because the article can be fully formatted and made available electronically prior to print–fully searchable in PubMed, prime time for the C.V.

One such study came to us from researchers in the Department of Movement Science at the University of Wuppertal in Germany: Effects of Static Stretching and Playing Soccer on Knee Laxity.  This is a randomized clinical trial looking at the effects of static stretching and playing soccer on anterior tibial translation.  I emailed the lead author, Christian Baumgart, and he was more than happy to join us on funf fragen…er, five questions!

Danke Christian!  I hope to meet you some day in Germany.

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1) CJSM: What would you say was the most notable finding in your study?

CB: Previous studies have shown that different exercises lead to an increase in the sagittal knee laxity. The surprising finding of our study was that static stretching also increases the sagittal knee laxity and even to a greater extent than playing soccer. From a biomechanical point of view this fact seems to be logical, because in healthy athletes the joint mobility during stretching is limited primarily by ligaments and capsules. Subsequently, these connective tissues were short-termed plastic deformed. It is unclear whether the connective tissues adapts structurally, if the external load is applied long-term.

2) CJSM: Do you think the statistically significant increases in anterior tibial translation (ATT) you found both in static stretching and playing football (soccer) are clinically significant? Read more of this post

Filed under Basic Sciences in SEM, General Interest, Injury Prevention Tagged with , ,

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