Sports Medicine Research Updates

This cohort study compared male professional soccer and rugby players who underwent ACL reconstruction with associated MCL injury (operative or nonoperative treatment) to five matched uninjured controls per injured player. About 90% returned to play at ~11.6 months and injured players showed similar 2- and 5-year retention and median career length to matched controls, with injury not associated with increased retirement risk after adjusting for age, sport, and competition level.

A systematic review of 29 studies (meta-analysis of 16; 3,972 hips, mean follow-up 68.4 months) compared outcomes after hip arthroscopy for FAIS by preoperative Tonnis grade. Patient-reported outcomes were similar between Tonnis 0, 1, and 2 cohorts for selected measures, but Tonnis grade 2 hips had significantly lower joint survivorship with higher rates of conversion to total hip arthroplasty compared with grades 0 and 1.

This systematic review and meta-analysis of 32 comparative studies compared contemporary arthroscopic versus open Bankart repair and found no overall differences in postoperative dislocation, subluxation, overall instability, apprehension, or multiple patient-reported outcome measures. Arthroscopic repair was associated with slightly less loss of external rotation in abduction and shorter hospital stay but had a higher reoperation rate (RR 2.15); subgroup analysis indicated historically worse instability outcomes after arthroscopy in studies published before 2010, whereas studies from 2010 onward showed comparable outcomes between approaches.