Surgery helps athletes with hamstring tears

doi:10.1136/bmj.334.7593.560-d

BMJ 2007;334:560 (17 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.334.7593.560-d

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Surgery helps athletes with hamstring tears

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Distal hamstring tears in athletes can be treated successfullyby surgery. Eighteen athletes injured when sprinting or runningcomplained of pain and stiffness of the posterior thigh andweakness in flexion or instability at the knee joint. Most tearswere at the myotendinous junction. Thirteen tears were repairedby suturing after excision of scar tissue (as in a tendinoustear of the biceps femoris) and two by tenotomy. Two patientswith avulsions required tendon reinsertion.

Fourteen athletes were able to return to their preinjury sportinglevel after an average of four months; three resumed only recreationalsport. A professional dancer, who had surgery twice six yearsafter injury, had an outcome that was classified by the researchersas "poor" (described as "occasional disturbing symptoms evenin activities of daily living").

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