Prevalência das lesões musculares por estiramento localizadas no ventre muscular dos isquiossurais em atletas: uma revisão da literatura

Abstract

Hamstring strain injuries are the most commonly seen muscle injuries in clinical sports practice. According to the literature, the myotendinous junction (MTJ) has been described as the main site of occurrence of these injuries, although in clinical practice, many cases are found in the muscle belly. The present study aims to conduct a bibliographic review in search of studies reporting strain injuries located in the muscle belly, in addition to the MTJ. And so, investigate the site of highest occurrence of these injuries. Searches were made in the following search engines: Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed. This work includes studies that related, in general, the hamstring injury to sports practice and that discoursed on the site of the injury, epidemiology, classification, and on the mechanisms involved in the occurrence of these injuries. The work excludes studies that, although involving muscular injuries, had as their focus the evaluation of the efficacy of treatments or exercises, that compared injuries between genders and that described ligament ruptures or tendon injuries isolated from the muscular injury. Twenty seven studies were included in this research for being potentially relevant: 6 studies (22%) resulted in localized injuries only in the MTJ or close to it; 8 (30%) covered injuries located in the muscle belly, in addition to the MTJ; 8 (30%) studies did not specify the location of the stretch; and the other 5 (18%) classified the injuries with another nomenclature. Despite finding cases reporting the occurrence of strain in the muscle belly, most of the injuries were located in the MTJ. However, the lack of standardization regarding the classification of injuries among the studies, and prioritization of research by MTJ, added to the portion of studies that did not report the damaged area, generated inconclusive results for this search. Only the most recent studies have detailed the muscle belly as an important place to be investigated, therefore, future studies should continue following this place in search of findings that justify its considerable occurrence in the clinical condition.