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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Sports Med Int Open 2022; 6(02): E60-E68
DOI: 10.1055/a-1926-0817
Orthopedics & Biomechanics

Measures of Knee Capability in Handball Players Differ by Age: A Cross Sectional Study

Constantin Mayer
1   Orthopedics and Traumatology, St Marien-Hospital Mülheim an der Ruhr, Mülheim, Germany
,
Alina Rühlemann
2   Orthopedics and Traumatology, University of Duisburg-Essen Faculty of Medicine, Essen, Germany
,
Andre Busch
3   Orthopedics and Traumatology, katholische Kliniken Philippusstift Essen, Essen, Germany
,
Marcus Jäger
2   Orthopedics and Traumatology, University of Duisburg-Essen Faculty of Medicine, Essen, Germany
1   Orthopedics and Traumatology, St Marien-Hospital Mülheim an der Ruhr, Mülheim, Germany
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Abstract

The return to sport after knee injury is challenging. This is burdensome for sports with a high incidence of injuries, such as team handball. Various tests guide decision making, but often the athlete’s preinjury performance of these measures remains unknown. Moreover, objective return-to-sport criteria of a matching population are missing. The purpose of this study was to evaluate objective measures of knee capability in handball depending on players’ age. Two hundred sixty-one handball players performed a functional test battery designed to evaluate knee capability after an anterior cruciate ligament injury: two- and one-legged stability analysis, jumps, speed tests, and agility assessments. For age-specific evaluation, athletes were divided into three age groups (16–19; 20–29;≥30 years). Male players showed differences in two and one-legged jumping height (p<0.02) as well as power per body weight (p<0.01) between age groups. Young female players reached better results in two-and one-legged stability. Besides the quick feet test, results of females did not differ between age groups. Functional knee stability in healthy handball players is partly influenced by age, and females show better results in stability and male athletes in power measurements. This aspect should be considered for return to sports testing and underlines the importance of performance measures in athletic testing.

Key words

return to sport - handball - test battery - knee


Publication History

Received: 05 April 2022
Received: 05 July 2022

Accepted: 08 August 2022

Accepted Manuscript online:
24 August 2022

Article published online:
25 December 2022

© 2022. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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Rüdigerstraße 14, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

 

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