Ankle Injuries Associated with Basketball Practice: Current Situation and Literature Review

Introduction: Basketball is one of the most practiced sports in the world. Traditionally, it has been considered that it is a sport of low physical contact, and that sports injuries occur less frequently than in other sports such as football or rugby. However, we have seen the appearance of several recent studies that count basketball as one of the sports with higher injury rates, and among them, especially ankle injuries. Material and methods: In our study, we performed a literature review on ankle injuries associated with basketball practice. We selected the relevant articles of Pubmed using the keywords “basketball”, “ankle” (ankle) and “injury”, published between 2006 and 2015. We limited the selection to those studies that dealt with injuries associated with basketball, whether descriptive or analytical, without taking into account the populations that the authors studied or whether in addition to basketball, other sports were included. The exclusion criteria were as follows: experimental studies, case reports and then whose text is impossible to obtain. Results and discussion: Initially 114 studies were obtained, of which 13 were selected applying the previously mentioned criteria. They observed the incidence of ankle injuries during basketball practice in different population groups, different levels of practice (professional and amateur) and during different periods of time. Among professional athletes, we could observe that ankle sprains account for more than 20% of the injuries suffered by athletes that they are accountable for almost 10% of the matches that a professional player loses because of an injury, and that only about half of them take place during a game, which increases the importance of injuries that occur during practice. When it comes to amateur level basketball, we can observe in several studies that, while the male population is more prone to need medical assistance for ankle injuries during the practice of this sport (from 18.3% of injuries associated with basketball, up to 52%, according to the series), the female population has a greater predisposition for knee injuries (63% of injuries associated with basketball for only 21% of ankle injuries in some jobs). Conclusions: After analysing the recent literature, we could draw among others the following conclusions: basketball is a sport which is closely linked to the appearance of ankle injuries; the most prevalent ankle injury is sprain; the incidence of injuries increases the higher the level of practice, being maximum in professionals; these injuries have an evident impact on the athlete’s usual sports and extrasports practice; and gender may have an influence on the joint affected by basketball related injuries. Basketball is a rising sport at the moment, with a great social and economic impact in the world of today. Its practice is becoming more frequent, and with it the incidence of injuries associated with it, especially those occurring in the ankle joint. It is therefore expected that in the coming years, we are likely to observe the appearance of more works in the literature that confirm this fact, as well as advances in the treatment and recovery of the athletes who suffer them