Etiological importance of training frequency, age and prevalance of Femoroacetabular İmpingement(FAİ) in pediatric male athletes

Femoroacetabular impingement (FAİ) is a prearthrozic disease that causes hip pain in adolescent-adult patients. The aim of the study is, determining the prevalence of asymptomatic radiographic findings of FAİ, to examine the evaluation of prevalence difference according to age groups and the impact of the levels of physical activity at developmental period on the development of asymptomatic FAİ. MATERIALS-METHODS: In our study, we included 214 pediatric athletes from 8 football teams operating in Istanbul between 11-18 years of age in September 2015- January 2016. Ethics Committee approval was obtained for our study. AP pelvis and Frog-leg radiographs, curriculum vitae of the athletes, their injuries, and their realtime complaints have been questioned. The alpha angle, CE angle, Tonnis angle, collodiaphyseal angle is measured from the resulting AP and Frog leg radiographs and terms of morphological abnormalities (FAİ, dysplasia and coxa vara…) was noted. Also athletes dominant feet, weekly training period and the years they play soccer was noted. The obtained data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and Student-T test. RESULTS: The average age of the 214 pediatric male athletes that included was 15(10-18). Asymptomatic FAİ prevalence of all ages was %29.9, % 0 in the range of 10-12 years, %13.1 in the range of 13-15 years, %45.7 in the 15-18 age range. These findings showed that significantly increased prevalence of FAİ in line with age in pediatric athletes statistically (p <0.05). The mean right hip alpha angle of all athletes was 50.7, left alpha angle was 50.3, right-CE angle was 28.6, left CE angle was 29.5, right Tönnis Angle 6.6, left Tönnis angle 5.0, right neck-shaft angle 133.9, left neck-shaft angle 134.7 degrees found. There was 7 acetabular dysplasia, 56 athletes with CAM type FAS, 4 athletes Pincer type FAS, and 4 combined FAS was found. There was no significant statistical relationship in the prevalences of FAİ between the number of years he worked as an athlete or the side which they hit the ball. However a positive correlation was found between weekly training hours (p <0.05). There were no statistical relationship between morphological abnormalities and previous injuries. DISCUSSION: Among the etiology oriented researches, investigation for developmental factors still continues. İn our study, it is found that the sports activities in the pediatric period that are accused can be a factor in FAİ development due to the positive correlation between pediatric athletes age ang training frequency.