Ann Rehabil Med.  2016 Aug;40(4):702-709. 10.5535/arm.2016.40.4.702.

Shoulder Disease Patterns of the Wheelchair Athletes of Table-Tennis and Archery: A Pilot Study

• You BC
• Lee WJ
• Lee SH
• Jang S
• Lee HS

• KMID: 2356656
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5535/arm.2016.40.4.702

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the shoulder disease patterns for the table-tennis (TT) and archery (AR) wheelchair athletes via ultrasonographic evaluations.
METHODS
A total of 35 wheelchair athletes were enrolled, made up of groups of TT (n=19) and AR (n=16) athletes. They were all paraplegic patients and were investigated for their wheelchair usage duration, careers as sports players, weekly training times, the Wheelchair User's Shoulder Pain Index (WUSPI) scores and ultrasonographic evaluation. Shoulders were divided into playing arm of TT, non-playing arm of TT, bow-arm of AR, and draw arm of AR athletes. Shoulder diseases were classified into five entities of subscapularis tendinopathy, supraspinatus tendinopathy, infraspinatus tendinopathy, biceps long head tendinopathy, and subacromial-subdeltoid bursitis. The pattern of shoulder diseases were compared between the two groups using the Mann-Whitney and the chi-square tests
RESULTS
WSUPI did not significantly correlate with age, wheelchair usage duration, career as players or weekly training times for all the wheelchair athletes. For the non-playing arm of TT athletes, there was a high percentage of subscapularis (45.5%) and supraspinatus (40.9%) tendinopathy. The percentage of subacromial-subdeltoid bursitis showed a tendency to be present in the playing arm of TT athletes (20.0%) compared with their non-playing arm (4.5%), even though this was not statistically significant. Biceps long head tendinopathy was the most common disease of the shoulder in the draw arm of AR athletes, and the difference was significant when compared to the non-playing arm of TT athletes (p<0.05).
CONCLUSION
There was a high percentage of subscapularis and supraspinatus tendinopathy cases for the non-playing arm of TT wheelchair athletes, and a high percentage of biceps long head tendinopathy for the draw arm for the AR wheelchair athletes. Consideration of the biomechanical properties of each sport may be needed to tailor specific training for wheelchair athletes.

Keyword

Wheelchair athletes; Table tennis; Archery; Ultrasound; Rotator cuff tendinopathy

MeSH Terms

Arm
Athletes*
Bursitis
Head
Humans
Pilot Projects*
Shoulder Pain
Shoulder*
Sports
Tendinopathy
Ultrasonography
Wheelchairs*

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Pattern of shoulder diseases was compared for the dominant side or not, and between the group of wheelchair table-tennis (TT) and archery (AR). The five diseases for the shoulder, in order with counter-clockwise direction, were 'A' subscapularis tendinopathy, 'B' supraspinatus tendinopathy, 'C' infraspinatus tendinopathy, 'D' biceps long head tendinopathy, and 'E' subacromial-subdeltoid bursitis. *p<0.05 by chi-square test, as compared with non-playing arm of TT.

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