It has become a challenge for a lot of athletes and physicians when it comes to making diagnosis of groin pain experienced by athletes. Before, most of the groin pain experienced by athletes were diagnosed to be only muscle strains. But as time passed by and significant research was made on the source of groin pain found different conditions on muscle injury, nerve issues, damage on cartilage and also on urologic conditions which showed similar symptoms. One of the hardest issues to diagnose is the thing that’s called sports hernia.
A sports hernia is actually there when there’s a weakening on one’s tendons or muscles on the lower abdominal wall. Such part of the abdomen would be in the same region to where the inguinal hernia happens and is called as the inguinal canal. If ever there’s an inguinal hernia, a weakening on the abdominal wall will allow the hernia to be felt. On sports hernia, the problem would be on the weakening of the same abdominal wall muscles, but the hernia will not be visible.
The Symptoms
Sports hernia usually starts with a slow aching pain that you will feel in the lower abdominal region. The symptoms could worsen through certain activities like running or simply bending forward. It could also lead to the experience of increased symptoms when coughing or sneezing. Also, sports hernias are usually common for athletes that requires them to maintain a bent forward position. This however may still be experienced by other athletes such as football players.
Its Diagnosis
A sports hernia diagnosis is actually determined based on the physical examination, history of the patient and on the diagnostic tests. Before, an MRI test is used in searching for any signs of sports hernia. Research shows that MRI is able to show some characteristic findings. Due to this, MRI is being used to help in confirming diagnosis of sports hernia.
The Treatment
Some treatments actually show to be really effective for sports hernia other than surgery. Because of this, the initial treatment of sports hernia had been conservative in hopes that its symptoms will resolve. Strengthening of the patient’s abdominal and pelvic musculature is found to be effective sometimes to help relieve the symptoms.
When these kinds of measures could not relieve the symptoms of sports hernia, surgery is usually recommended that will help in repairing the weakened area of the abdominal wall. Studies have shown that there are more than 50{fe7613b291d006772df7c2b6260bbc0943a96d900df326f67cc15c45c57b1760} of athletes who are able to return on to their activities after they have gone through sports hernia surgery. The rehabilitation from surgery of sports hernia mostly takes about eight weeks.