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Case Study: Prevalence of Hip Pain and Femoroacetabular Impingement in Professional Table Tennis Players
Camille Rose1, Samantha Denis1, Sebastien Le Garrec1
1Institut National du Sport de l'Expertise et de la Performance, Paris, France.
Objective:
To (1) report the prevalence of hip pain in professional table tennis players registered at a National Sports Institute, (2) describe their hip pathologies, and (3) evaluate expectations regarding hip pain before and after becoming high-level athletes.
Design:
Case series.
Setting:
French National Sports Institute.
Patients:
Nineteen professional table tennis players.
Interventions:
None.
Main Outcome Measures:
UCLA activity score, training information, prevalence of hip pain, expectations regarding hip pain, and hip joint injuries/pathologies.
Results:
The cohort comprised 19 table tennis players, 6 women and 13 men, aged 24.9 ± 4.1 years. Before playing table tennis professionally, 8 players thought that becoming high-level players could cause pain at their joints; however, none thought that becoming high-level players could cause pain at their hip joint. Eleven athletes reported experiencing hip pain, with 8 having femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), which was concomitant with chondropathy in 6, hip dysplasia in 5, and coxarthrosis in 3. Five athletes required femoroplasty for FAI or total hip arthroplasty for coxarthrosis. All athletes who underwent surgery returned to sport. At the time of the questionnaire, 15 athletes thought it was common for high-level table tennis players to have hip pain.
Conclusions:
Professional table tennis players registered at the institute had a high prevalence of hip pain (58%) and FAI (42%), with 26% of athletes requiring surgery. These findings could allow coaches to align expectations in professional table tennis players, as well as to anticipate hip pathologies and design specific prevention programs.
