BONE STRESS INJURIES IN THE ARMY CADETS OF PAKISTAN MILITARY ACADEMY

Authors

  • Kamran Khan
  • Amjad Aziz Khan
  • Shakil Ahmad
  • Asif Jeilani
  • Zahid R. Khan

Abstract

Background: Bone stress injuries are common among army cadets during training period andthese injuries give rise to morbidity and loss of training hours. Some cadets with stress fracturesre-join their duties while some are kept out of services resulting in attrition and economic loss. Aretrospective analysis of bone stress injuries of one hundred and twenty cadets between June 2006and Dec 2007 was conducted from the case documents available at Institute of Nuclear Medicine,Oncology & Radiotherapy (INOR) Abbottabad. Results: The occurrence of stress fractures amongcadets at Pakistan Military Academy, presenting with exercise induced pain was 68.3% amongstthese cadets. Seventy fours percent f the fractures were labelled grade-I. High grade fractures wereconfined to tibia. Tibia was the commonest site of stress fractures in both sexes, accounting forabout 73% of all stress fractures. Fifty percent of these patients were labelled as having shinsplints and 3% as thigh splints. Conclusions: Most of the stress injuries were confined to the tibia.The referral was considered early as most of the stress injuries were of low grade.Keywords: Bone Stress, Stress fractures

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Published

2008-12-01