Osteitis pubis in athletes: How should it be treated during professional competition?

Abstract

Introduction Osteitis pubis, also known as pubalgia, is a mainly chronic injury, very common, which significantly affects the career of athletes, mainly men and young athletes, reappearing repeatedly because it occurs in an area that is constantly active in sports life, making it difficult to rest and thus generating numerous recurrences. Objectives Establish a proper management to treat this injury, taking into account the high competitiveness, and understand and know which is the most effective treatment method between surgical and conservative. Materials and methods A complete investigation will be carried out from different articles and studies carried out by health professionals about different treatments of osteitis pubis and at what time of the injury they were performed, from these to draw a conclusion according to the different results. Results: Different studies were reviewed,76 athletes with a diagnosis of pubalgia, were treated with conservative methods averaging a return to activity between 3 and 6 months depending on the stage of the injury. Injection therapy showed positive results in some patients at 3-8 weeks, while other patients after 25 weeks of injection did not benefit. 198 patients were studied for surgical treatment, on average, prior to surgery, presented preoperative symptoms for 15 months and averaged a recovery time of 9 months to regain competitiveness. Conclusion: OP should be treated according to the type of lesion of each patient, it should always be started with conservative treatment, ignoring infiltrative therapies, it should not wait more than 3 months to opt for surgical treatment.