Hamstring strains are common in sports like football, soccer and other sports that demand high speed kicking, rapid directional changes, and quick deceleration. Dancers are also prone to hamstring strains, with 34 percent reporting at least a single incident.
Once an athlete injures a hamstring, re-injury risk goes up, causing the athlete to play. The risk remains elevated for an entire year.
Considering the high stakes of hamstring strains, much research has been devoted to a repeat hamstring injury.
Types of Hamstring Strains
Because the hamstrings are made up of three long muscles that act at both the hip and the knee, hamstring injuries should not be painted with a broad brush, but should be given individualized diagnosis and treatment.
Three factors that influence the location and severity of hamstring injuries include:
Type of activity: Kicking injuries differ from sprinting injuries, and both differ from sliding injuries. High speed running injuries often involve the long head of the biceps femoris muscle, while hamstring lengthening movements more often affect the semimembranosus proximal tendon.
Muscle architecture: Certain athletes may be genetically predisposed to increased risk of hamstring injury. A structurally narrow aponeurosis of the long head of the biceps femoris is an example of a higher risk structural anomaly.
Referred pain from the lumbar spine: Sometimes what feels like a hamstring injury can originate in nerves branching from the lumbar spine. Injury to the gluteal muscles or fascia may also feel like hamstring pain.
Risk Factors for Hamstring Injury
Playing sports has its own inherent risks, but certain things can up the ante for hamstring injuries.
Unequal leg length: even a slight difference in length can affect movement mechanics
Altered optimal muscle length: the optimal length for force production may be shortened after a hamstring injury, changing knee flexion torque
Tight hamstring muscles: Tight inflexible hamstrings are more vulnerable to injury
Imbalance between right and left hamstring strength: Muscle imbalances reduce coordination and overall performance
Playing with cold muscles: Muscles that are warmed up are more elastic and less subject to strain
Fatigue: Overworked muscles are more likely to become injured
Lumbar spine disorders: Low back pain and sciatica can affect pelvic position, which in turn affects hamstring function
Muscle fiber distribution: Hamstrings with a higher ratio of fast twitch vs slow twitch muscle fibers are more prone to strains
Core instability: A weakened and unstable core causes inefficient load transfer between upper and lower body during play, increasing the risk of hamstring injury
Diagnosis
Hamstring injuries can be diagnosed with a patient his to speed up the athlete’s recovery.
Treatment and Rehabilitation
There is a great deal of incentive and pressure for an athlete to play can result in re-injury that can be career ending.
Fear of re-injury is an often overlooked factor responses.
The time necessary for rehabilitation varies with each individual athlete. Besides structural healing, the athlete’s confidence in their ability tored.
Treatment to Reduce Recurring Hamstring Injury in NYC
Effective and thorough rehabilitation is key to play with confidence.
At our Manhattan sports rehab clinic, we use state-of-the-art technologies to diagnose and retrain sports injuries. Diagnostic real-time ultrasound, 3D motion capture force plate technology, C.A.R.E.N, our virtual reality rehab environment and other technologies are available on-site. We use innovative therapies like DNS, shock wave therapy, dry needling and other treatments that can only be found at NYDNR.
For your best shot at returning today.
Reactive Neuromuscular Training on Kineo
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About the Author
Dr. Lev Kalika is a world-recognized expert in musculoskeletal ultrasonography, with 20+ years of clinical experience in advanced rehabilitative medicine. In addition to operating his clinical practice in Manhattan, he regularly publishes peer-reviewed research on ultrasound-guided therapies and procedures.
Dr. Kalika is an esteemed member of the International Society for Medical Shockwave Treatment ((SMST), and the only clinician in New York certified by the ISMST to perform extracorporeal shockwave therapy. He is also an active member of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM), and has developed his own unique approach to dynamic functional and fascial ultrasonography.
In this instance, an athlete was originally diagnosed with minor quadriceps muscle strain and was treated for four weeks, with unsatisfactory results. When he came to our clinic, the muscle was not healing, and the patients’ muscle tissue had already begun to atrophy.
Upon examination using MSUS, we discovered that he had a full muscle thickness tear that had been overlooked by his previous provider. To mitigate damage and promote healing, surgery should have been performed immediately after the injury occurred. Because of misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment, the patient now has permanent damage that cannot be corrected.
The most important advantage of Ultrasound over MRI imaging is its ability to zero in on the symptomatic region and obtain imaging, with active participation and feedback from the patient. Using dynamic MSUS, we can see what happens when patients contract their muscles, something that cannot be done with MRI. From a diagnostic perspective, this interaction is invaluable.
Dynamic ultrasonography examination demonstrating the full thickness tear and already occurring muscle atrophy due to misdiagnosis and not referring the patient to proper diagnostic workup
Demonstration of how very small muscle defect is made and revealed to be a complete tear with muscle contraction under diagnostic sonography (not possible with MRI)
Complete tear of rectus femoris with large hematoma (blood)
Separation of muscle ends due to tear elicited on dynamic sonography examination
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