[Subclinical findings in the knees of taekwondo athletes: diagnostic ultrasound study].

UNLABELLED: Taekwondo is associated with an increased incidence of musculoskeletal injuries such as tendinopathy, synovitis, chondropathy, and ligament and meniscus injuries that may have an asymptomatic course in their initial stages, especially those located in the knee.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the presence of morphostructural abnormalities in asymptomatic taekwondo athletes' (TKD) knees through the use of diagnostic ultrasound (US).

METHODS

A cross-sectional, descriptive and comparative study. We evaluated 32 knees of 16 subjects (8 TKD and 8 recreational athletes). All subjects underwent sport-medical history and knee US.

RESULTS

A variety of intra- and extra-articular morphostructural abnormalities were observed; the most frequent were synovitis, meniscal extrusion, and enthesopathy.

CONCLUSIONS

The practice of Taekwondo abnormalities associated with an increased risk of knee injuries that may go unnoticed in the early stages. The use of US as an auxiliary tool in the diagnosis of these injuries and/or advisable since it can define in detail the anatomical structures subject to overuse, biomechanical stress, or repetitive trauma, and contribute to early detection of asymptomatic morphostructural alterations that may ensure timely preventive and therapeutic interventions.