Handball Sports Medicine Lior Laver • Philippe Landreau Romain Seil • Nebojsa Popovic Editors Handball Sports Medicine Basic Science, Injury Management and Return to Sport Editors Lior Laver Philippe Landreau Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics Department of Surgery University Hospitals Coventry and Aspetar - Orthopaedic and Sports Warwickshire Medicine Hospital Coventry Doha UK Qatar Romain Seil Nebojsa Popovic Clinique d’Eich Aspetar - Orthopaedic and Sports Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg Medicine Hospital Clinique d’Eich Weill Cornell Medical College Luxembourg Doha Luxembourg Qatar ISBN 978-3-662-55891-1 ISBN 978-3-662-55892-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-55892-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018941839 © ESSKA 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature The registered company address is: Heidelberger Platz 3, 14197 Berlin, Germany A Word from the ESSKA President ESSKA’s mission is to raise the level of care and achieve excellence in the field of orthopedics in Europe, especially in sports medicine and degenerative joint diseases with the intention to improve musculoskeletal function and quality of life of patients. Following this strategy, ESSKA and its newly cre- ated sports-medicine section ESMA intend to stimulate the dissemination of science to improve the health of athletes. ESSKA is proud to publish this book on handball medicine and science in its own book publishing portfolio. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first of its kind in handball and together with a book on football medicine edited by Prof. Jon Karlsson and coworkers in the same collection is part of some of the first sports-specific medical books on the publishing market. This reflects not only the increasing specialization of the sports themselves but also the growing sports-specific medical and scientific knowledge in these fields. The fact that the books are edited by orthopedic surgeons did probably not happen by accident. Despite the best surgical treat- ments we can offer, our community is too often confronted with situations of difficult decision-making after sports injuries, injury-related premature end of careers, or long-term physical or social consequences of sports injuries. Therefore, I felt enthusiastic when Lior Laver approached me in 2014 at the ESSKA congress in Amsterdam to help him publishing a book on handball medicine and science. Ten years before, the massive problem of noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries sustained in handball had been brought up by our Norwegian friends led by Grethe Myklebust, Lars Engebretsen, and Roald Bahr [1]. They taught us that about half of these injuries could poten- tially be prevented by adequate prevention training. But little had changed on the handball field. Prevention exercises were still not routinely implemented in practice, and we orthopedic surgeons continued to see too many of these young patients with severe handball injuries. With the exception of Norway and some other rare places, systematic research on handball injuries was sparse until recently. One of these places was Qatar, where to the best of my knowledge the first scientific meeting on handball injuries was organized dur- ing the men’s world championship early 2015. Under the leadership of Philippe Landreau and the Olympic gold medal winner of the first ever indoor Olympic handball tournament Nebosja Popovic, a large community of medical and sci- entific specialists with a particular interest in handball came together for a very fruitful 2-day exchange. Philippe and Nebosja developed similar plans to pub- lish a book on medical aspects in handball. I thank them for having agreed to join us as coeditors in a single book project under the aegis of ESSKA. v vi A Word from the ESSKA President Handball is one of the pivoting team sports where players are mostly affected by injuries [2]. In comparison to other sports, it can be found in the top five in terms of the number and gravity of injuries. Concussions are not rare, as are acute joint injuries, mostly of the knee and ankle, and recent stud- ies have emphasized the importance of overload and degenerative injuries, especially of the shoulder, hip, and knee. Further research is needed to assess the magnitude of these problems, to develop preventive strategies, and to update guidelines on player safety and medical support. Despite some of the existing quality research based on handball players, the sport is lagging behind other sports when it comes to producing evidence-based medicine and science. There is lack of consistent and continuous epidemiologic data research which is necessary to improve the players’ safety in an ever-chang- ing sport environment. At the highest levels, combining national and interna- tional competitions, players play up to 80 competitive matches per year at high intensity, with plans to even increase these numbers. Recently, the EHF has recognized the growing need to protect athletes’ health. It has launched a medical and science group, aiming to identify and target immediate needs in order to improve the science in the sport as well as the medical aspects and the players’ safety. It started a unique cooperation with ESSKA. Indeed, it is rare that the stakeholders of a European sports federation join forces with a scientific medical society to improve their play- ers’ health. Therefore, I thank the leadership of the EHF, and especially Mr. Helmut Höritsch, for their willingness to engage in this endeavor. I do also thank my coeditors of which Lior Laver was the main driving force throughout the entire process and the authors, many of whom are highly recognized specialists in their respective fields, for taking their rare spare time to share their knowledge with us in this book project. In some years from now, it can be expected that the medical aspects around handball will be as thoroughly organized as in football and that the science emerging from this improved structure will be beneficial for both the sport and the players’ health in the short and long run. Motivated by the numerous injuries my former teammates and I had sustained during our own handball careers, I performed one of the first epidemiological studies in handball as a young resident in orthopedic surgery [3]. Therefore, I am proud to be part of the editors’ team of this book which hopefully may be beneficial to preserve or improve the health of other players. Romain Seil References 1. Myklebust G, Engebretsen L, Braekken IH, Skjolberg A, Olsen OE, Bahr R. Prevention of anterior cruciate ligament injuries in female team handball players: a prospective intervention study over three seasons. Clin J Sport Med.2003; 13:71–78 A Word from the ESSKA President vii 2. Seil R, Laver L, Landreau P, Myklebust G, Waldén M. ESSKA helps making a change: the example of handball medicine. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc. 2017. doi:10.1007/s00167–4478-x. 3. Seil R, Rupp S, Tempelhof S, Kohn D. Sports injuries in team handball: a one-year prospective study of sixteen men’s senior teams of a superior nonprofessional level. Am J Sports Med. 1998; 26:681–687 Foreword by Michael Wiederer As the game of handball has developed tremendously in recent years, it became evident that a structured and organized medical and scientific support for the game is needed, as well as the establishing of a continuous and pro- ductive communication between the medical and scientific aspects and the rest of the stakeholders around the game. In 2011, the first European Handball Federation (EHF) Scientific Conference was organized by the European Handball Federation on the fringes of its 20th anniversary based on an initiative by Frantisek Taborsky, the former EHF Methods Commission Chairman, who also founded the EHF Union of University Handball Teachers (UUHT). The range of the scientific presentations was wide, including approaches from training sciences, human sciences, and sports medicine. A quote by my predecessor and honorary EHF President, Jean Brihault, paved the way for the successful biannual continuation of EHF Scientific Conferences: Sport, in general, and handball, in particular, needs to steep its roots in the fundamental soil of scientific knowledge, in order to progress in a con- trolled and responsible way towards the higher levels of performance in full respect of the individual performance. The second edition followed in 2013, with a focus on women’s handball. This edition also launched a medical symposium focusing on knee injuries in women’s handball, receiving great attention. In 2015, the third edition was fully dedicated to medical aspects of training and the game, touching on topics such as injury prevention and prophylactic training.