Epidemiological study on professional football injuries during the 2011 Copa America, Argentina Estudo epidemiológico das les es no futebol profissional durante a Copa América de 2011, Argentina

OBJECTIVE: Develop an epidemiological study of injuries occurred among male professional football players during the Copa America 2011, held in Argentina. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of injuries sustained during the 43rd edition of the Copa America football in Argentina, in 2011. The lesions were evaluated by the medical department of the selections and reported to the CONMEBOL. The data were compiled and reported in accordance with rules established by the FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Centre (F-MARC) in 2005. RESULTS: There was a higher prevalence of lesions in the lower limbs. Thighs and knees were the most affected segments. The most frequent diagnoses were muscle injuries. The injuries were mostly minor degrees of severity and there was little difference in the prevalence of lesions according to the stages of the match, with slight predominance in the final 15 minutes. The incidence of lesions per 1,000 game hours was similar to the average found in the literature. CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained allowed us to outline a profile of the prevalence, distribution per body segment, minute in which occurred and severity of injuries in professional football players of participating teams in the Copa America 2011 in Argentina. The extreme rigor of referees may be partly attributed to the highly competitive nature of international tournaments. However, this results cannot be considered definitive because of the need to be compared to other epidemiological studies with same design using similar concepts and criteria. OBJETIVO: Desenvolver estudo epidemiológico sobre as les es ocorridas entre os jogadores profissionais de futebol masculino durante a Copa América de 2011, na Argentina. MéTODOS: Fez-se estudo retrospectivo das les es ocorridas durante a 43a edi o da Copa América de Futebol na Argentina, em 2011. As les es foram avaliadas pelo departamento médico das sele es e reportadas à Conmebol. Os dados foram compilados e descritos de acordo com as normas estabelecidas pelo Centro de Pesquisas e Avalia es Médicas (F-Marc) da Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) em 2005. RESULTADOS: Ocorreu maior prevalência de les es nos membros inferiores, sendo coxas e joelhos os segmentos mais acometidos. Os diagnósticos mais frequentes foram les es musculares. As les es apresentaram em sua maior parte grau leve de severidade e ocorreu pequena diferen a na prevalência de les es de acordo com as etapas da partida, havendo discreto predomínio nos 15 minutos finais. A incidência de les es por 1.000 horas de jogo foi similar à