A fisioterapia aquática na recuperação de lesões de atletas: revisão de escopo

Abstract

Introduction: Musculoskeletal injuries in athletes are a recurring factor in the daily lives of this population, due to the stress imposed during sports practice and training, which causes great tension to human movement structures. Injuries are associated to the sport modalities and its biomechanical demands. Thus, the incidence and severity of injuries are related to the modality practiced, personal and environmental factors. Aquatic physiotherapy (AP) has been widely used in the recovery of injuries in athletes worldwide. Objective: Describe the use of aquatic physiotherapy in the rehabilitation of athletes. Methodology: This is a scoping review, based on the guidelines proposed by PRISMA-ScR. Articles in different languages that fit the study criteria were selected; studies that presented aquatic physiotherapy protocols aimed at athletes were included. Articles unrelated to the topic were excluded; protocols that were not detailed or only descriptions without data on efficacy. The search was conducted in the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Scielo and PEDro databases. Results: 748 articles, of which 9 were included in the review after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Of these, 6 were randomized clinical trials, 2 were case reports and one was a randomized pilot study. In most studies, the athletes were classified as amateurs or professionals, but the most investigated sports modalities were soccer, volleyball and basketball. The main outcome present in all studies was pain, and the injuries treated in AP were knee and ankle ligament strains. The protocols were varied, the most common aimed to increase proprioception and joint stability. Conclusion: This scoping review demonstrates that AP is an effective alternative for the treatment and recovery of injuries in professional and amateur athletes, from different sports modalities. Most clinical trials investigate lower limb injuries and make adaptations of the practices/kinesiotherapy performed on land. This review suggests that future research should be done for upper limb injuries in athletes and using established aquatic physiotherapy methods and concepts.