Table tennis dystonia

Abstract

Focal task-specific dystonia (FTSD) occurs exclusively during a specific activity that usually involves a highly skilled movement. Classical FTSD dystonias include writer's cramp and musician's dystonia. Few cases of sport-related dystonia have been reported. We describe the first four cases of FTSD related to table tennis (TT), two involving professional international competitors. We also systematically analyzed the literature for reports of sport-related dystonia including detailed clinical descriptions. We collected a total of 13 cases of sport-related dystonia, including our four TT players. Before onset, all the patients had trained for many years, for a large number of hours per week. Practice time had frequently increased significantly in the year preceding onset. As TT is characterized by highly skilled hand/forearm movements acquired through repetitive exercises, it may carry a higher risk of FTSD than other sports. Intensive training may result in maladaptive responses and overwhelm homeostatic mechanisms that regulate cortical plasticity in vulnerable individuals. Our findings support the importance of environmental risk factors in sport-related FTSD, as also suggested in classical FTSD, and have important implications for clinical practice.

Task-Specific Dystonia in Professional Musicians

“…Disorders that are related to musician's dystonia are further task-specific focal movement disorders, the most common of which is writer's cramp (6); other pathologies include golfer's cramp (7), auctioneer's cramp (8), or cramp while playing table tennis (9), but these are rarer.…”

Are the yips a task‐specific dystonia or “golfer's cramp”?

“…Often, the term “cramp” is used, such as writer's cramp or musician's cramp 1–3. Little research exists regarding athletes who may have dystonia during an athletic motion 1, 4–6…”

Speech-Induced Cervical Dystonia

“…Task-specific dystonia consists of abnormal muscle contractions or abnormal postures occuring only while performing a specific motor task. Common TSD include involuntary contraction of the hand or forearm muscles when writing (writer's cramp), abnormal contraction of the mouth or hand muscles when playing a musical instrument (embouchure dystonia or musician's cramp) and a variety of occupationrelated or sports-related dystonia such as involuntary cramping of the hand when typing, using a mouse, golfing, pistol-shooting, playing tennis table, etc [1][2][3][4] . The trigger action, in most cases, is a highly skilled, stereotyped, overlearned motor task 1,5,6 .…”