By Jordana Bieze Foster
Most professional basketball players who sustain Jones fractures are able to return to elite competition with no significant effect on their performance, according to a recent study that should please fantasy basketball players as well as lower extremity practitioners.
Investigators from the New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York City analyzed data for 26 National Basketball Association players who sustained fractures at the base of the fifth metatarsal over 19 seasons. They compared those players to a control group of 26 players matched for position, age, and player efficiency rating (PER, a statistical measure of basketball performance).
They found that 85% of the injured athletes returned to their previous level of competition. In those who did return, the PER for the season following the injury did not differ significantly from the season preceding the injury. PER values for those who returned successfully from the injury also did not differ significantly from the performance measures for the players in the control group.
The findings were epublished in December by Sports Health.
Source:
Begly JP, Guss M, Ramme AJ, et al. Return to play and performance after Jones fracture in National Basketball Association athletes. Sports Health 2015 Dec 1. [Epub ahead of print]
