Acute Hamstring Strains in Danish Elite Soccer - Prevention and Rehabilitation

November 9, 2007 updated by: Amager Hospital

A common soft tissue injury in sports involving sprinting and jumping is the hamstring strain.

Not much evidence-based research has been carried out on prevention of hamstring strains.

Most studies suggest that hamstring strains occur during the later part of the swing phase when the player is sprinting. In this phase the hamstring muscles are working to decelerate knee extension - that is, the muscle develops tension while lengthening. This means that the muscles change from functioning eccentrically to concentrically. We hypothesize that it is during this rapid change from eccentric to concentric function that the muscles are most vulnerable to injuries, and that the injuries can be prevented by increasing the eccentric muscle strength in the hamstring.

This randomized clinical trial will examine the effect of a 10-week preseason strength-training program in Danish elite soccer. The strength-training program focuses on eccentric hamstring training.

60 elite teams (1200 soccer players) will be cluster-randomized to either ordinary training or ordinary training combined with eccentric hamstring strength training. The training group will start the training program in the pre-season (10 weeks) and continue the training once a week during the following season.

Suspected hamstrings strains during the season will be examined within 3 days using ultrasound. Ultrasound verified hamstring strains will be registered, and players will start a standardized rehabilitation program.

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

1000

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

Male

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Male soccer player in one of the top 4 divisions i Denmark in the 2007/08 season
  • Minimum 18 years old at the time for inclusion

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Current hamstring strain at the time for inclusion
  • Under 18 years old

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Number of acute hamstring strains
Time Frame: one soccer season
one soccer season

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Number of ACL-injuries
Time Frame: One soccer season
One soccer season

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Amager Hospital

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Jesper Petersen, MD, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Amager University Hospital, Denmark

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2008

Study Completion (Anticipated)

March 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 9, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 9, 2007

First Posted (Estimate)

November 12, 2007

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

November 12, 2007

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 9, 2007

Last Verified

September 1, 2007

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • H-A-2007-0062

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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