These are common in athletes involved in jumping, sprinting, acceleration and deceleration.
Rick Factors:
An athlete with previous injuries to the hamstring has a higher likelihood of rupture. Age (increased age), less flexibility of the hip, athletes who don’t regularly do hamstring stretching exercises and high body mass index are also at a higher risk of rupture.
Mechanism of Injury:
Proximal hamstring strain is very common amongst these injuries. This happens at the musculo-tendinuous junction especially during eccentric hip flexion and knee extension.
Complete retracted tears in the proximal (buttock) regions are more often treated by surgical means. This can result in pain relief, good functional outcome, higher patient satisfaction and excellent healing rates.
Diagnosis:
Patients who have a rupture (proximal) can sometimes feel a mass or a gap. They will need to see an orthopaedic specialist, and require, Xrays, MRI scans to confirm this.
Treatment:
It is advocated that these injuries be treated surgically back to the ischial tuberosity.
The main risk during repairs is the Sciatic nerve, which needs to be identified and protected. Read more on repair:
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Complications of Not repairing include sciatic neuralgia (pain) and muscle
weakness.
After Care:
After repair, patients are usually in a brace for upto 6 weeks with the knees flexed at 90 deg to protect repairs with physio and rehab. Surgical repairing enables athletes to return to sporting activities 60-85% of the time.