Dependence of the severity of pain in the lower back and degenerative changes in the lumbar spine in skydivers depending on the experience of training

Abstract

Purpose of the study: to assess risk factors for the development of nonspecific back pain syndrome in skydivers.Materials and methods: A single-center, prospective, non-randomized study included 173 men aged 25 to 55 years who had been followed up with low back pain for 1 to 5 years. The main group included 89 people involved in parachuting (experience from 5 to 20 years, number of jumps — 276 (167; 387) times), the comparison group — 84 patients who had never jumped with a parachute. Depending on the total number of jumps, the main group was divided into 2 subgroups: less than 198 (n = 29) and more than 198 parachute jumps (n = 60). All patients underwent clinical neurological examination and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the spine. MRI was used to quantify the presence of disc tissue displacements, the presence of straightening lordosis, and spondylolisthesis. Statistical processing of the obtained data was carried out using the IBM SPSS Statistics 25 program.Results: a correlation was established between the appearance of disc tissue displacement in the spine according to MRI and the number of parachute jumps in the main group (r = 0.430; p < 0.001). The indicated pathological changes in the spine in paratroopers occurred when the total number of jumps was 198 or more. Among parachutists of the main group, displacement of disc tissue in the spine correlated with the level of pain intensity (r = 0.337; p < 0.001) and the degree of functional impairment according to the results of the questionnaires Oswestry (r = 0.325; p < 0.001) and Roland Morris (r = 0.292; p < 0.001). The highest rate of pain syndrome and degree of disability was in the subgroup of paratroopers with extensive experience (p < 0.05), while other groups of patients had no differences in this indicator.Conclusions: in skydiving athletes, the intensity of pain in the lower back and the degree of degenerative-dystrophic changes depended on the number of parachute jumps.