Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Traditionally, professional athletes are considered more endurable in pain than common people.
OBJECTIVE: To compare the pain endurance between professional athletes and common people after undertaking anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.
METHODS: Twenty patients (10 professional athletes and 10 common people) with anterior cruciate ligament rupture were selected from Peking University Third Hospital from June 2011 to December 2011. All the patients were treated with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction under arthroscope by the same physician and the same positioning and fixation methods. The visual analogue scale scores for post-operative pain were recorded after the operated extremity obtained full muscle strength.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The pain of all the patients reached to the intolerable level at 7 hours after the operated extremity obtained full muscle strength, the shortest peak time was 2 hours and the median time was 4 hours. In professional athlete group, the median peak time was 3 hours and 5 hours in common people group, and there was significant difference between two groups (P < 0.05). Professional athletes held worse pain endurance than common people after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.