Suprascapular nerve and volleyball: a potentially dangerous "sport match"

We have read with high consideration and pleasure the article, “Sensorimotor Control of the Shoulder in Professional Volleyball Players with Isolated Infraspinatus Muscle Atrophy,” by Contemori and colleagues.1 The authors investigated the static and dynamic shoulder stability, by the use of force platforms, in volleyball athletes with and without suprascapular nerve (SSN) involvement, causing infraspinatus muscle atrophy. They found the patients with nerve lesion presented alteration in sensory-motor proprioception and muscle strength, causing functional impairment of shoulder and risks of injuries. The paper is very didactic and informative for sport medicine and physicians, because it shows the importance of objective evaluation to understand patients’ conditions and sheds light on the element of the investigated disorder, which is relatively common in volleyball. A first important topic of the article by Contemori and colleagues is the diagnostic and evaluation approach of the disease. The authors completed clinical evaluation with objective measurements. The diagnostic instruments are useful to amplify physicians’ evaluation capability and quantify minimal parameter variations, and difficult to depict with the lone clinical assessment. Then, the authors underline the noteworthy association of muscle atrophy and proprioception disturbance in this kind of nerve involvement. This issue is extremely significant, because it highlights the importance of a sport rehabilitation focused not only to muscle strength recovery, but even to proprioceptio