At Aspetar Sport Medicine Journal, we believe it is important to keep regularly updated with topics that will help our readers in their daily practice. This issue, my choice is ‘Nerve Compression Syndromes in Sport Medicine’. Compression of a nerve in athletes can be caused by acute trauma, but it is most often the result of prolonged repetition of certain sporting movements, leading to overuse syndromes. Tunnel syndrome, or entrapment compression neuropathy, is significantly more common in elite athletes than previously thought. It is also characteristic of some sports, leading to conditions such as cyclist palsy, bowler's thumb, jogger's foot, or surfer's knee. Pain is the most common symptom. While the pain from tendinopathy intensifies with motion and decreases with rest, the pain from tunnel syndrome may actually be present at all times, worsening with motion. The name of the syndrome usually corresponds to the canal where the compression occurs, such as carpal tunnel syndrome or tarsal tunnel syndrome. Alternatively, it can be named after the compressed nerve, like anterior interosseous nerve syndrome, or the anatomical formation that compressed the nerve, like piriformis muscle syndrome. Additionally, there are tunnel syndromes named after the authors who first described them, such as Kiloh-Nevin's syndrome.
The goal of this issue is to describe the most frequent syndromes encountered in sports medicine practice. I invited my respected colleague, Prof. Elisabet Hagert, MD, PhD, to be the Guest Editor for this targeted issue of the Aspetar Sport Medicine Journal. She has assembled a great team of experts from all corners of the globe. With their papers, they are offering practical and scientific insight into the most frequent tunnel syndrome in sport medicine.
As 2023 draws to a close, we wanted to uniquely express our gratitude to our collaborators and readers for their sincere and friendly support. To this end, we invited the renowned Swedish photographer Martin Simonsson to both capture the photographs and also design the front cover and double-page spreads for this Targeted Topic. I appreciate his creative decision to depict the athlete on the cover as a human being, giving a personal dimension, rather than solely in a sporting context as seen previously. As a New Year gift, we are delighted to share Martin Simonsson’s photographs of Qatar, offering our readers a glimpse of the country through the artist’s lens.
We are also privileged to present in this issue an exclusive interview with our Guest Editor and the world star cricket player, Faf de Plessis. This outstanding athlete generously shares insights into his passion for cricket, one of the world’s most popular sports. He candidly discusses his journey of success, resilience, and the strategies he has employed in overcoming the challenges of pain within the demanding arena of professional cricket.
In addition to all these excellent papers, I would like to strongly recommend to you ‘Letter from Antarctica’, where our associate editor, Dr Celeste Geertsema and family, shares their recent experience from that frozen continent.
I would like to thank our Guest Editor, Prof. Elisabet Hagert, for her outstanding work, as well as all the authors for their generous contributions, which made this issue possible. I would also like to thank Martin Simonsson for sharing his art with our readers.
To all our readers, I wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year.
Prof Nebojsa Popovic MD PhD
Editor-in-Chief