Akpobasahan E. A.

Radiographic imaging has become a crucial element in the diagnosis of musculoskeletal injury to direct treatment. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used on 105 football players in Benin Metropolis. The structured questionnaire included the data collected concerning the history of injury, imaging use, and radiological service satisfaction. The purposive sampling was employed, and SPSS version 29 was applied to examine the data. The data were summarized using descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) and Chi-square tests were used to establish associations at a level of significance of 0.05. About 97 of 105 players (92.4) said that they had suffered sports related injuries. Ankle 46 (43.8%) and knee 37 (35.2) were most affected with muscles strain 54 (51.4) and sprain 28 (26.7) being key types of injury. The most frequently used imaging modalities were Xray 41 (39.0) and CT 36 (34.3), whereas the MRI and ultrasound were underutilized. The association was significant between age and frequency of injury (p = 0.011) and between training frequency and body part affected (p = 0.000), not type of injury and the use of imaging (p = 0.052). Radiological services also satisfied about 83 (79.0) players, 77 (73.3) played that imaging promoted their recovery process. Radiographic imaging is helpful in accurate diagnosis, treatment choice, and management outcome in sports related injuries. It is highly suggested that radiographers should be integrated into sports medical teams and greater availability of advanced imaging modalities should also be provided.
Keywords: Sports trauma, radiological examination, football, computer tomography, and radiologist.