Hundreds of thousands of endurance runners use footwear that has an embedded carbon fiber plate (CFP) within the midsole. Whereas the efficiency advantages that carbon fiber plate footwear presents have been nicely documented, little has been revealed about operating accidents associated to make use of of this footwear. In a present opinion piece revealed immediately within the journal Sports activities Medication, authors describe 5 instances during which runners utilizing carbon fiber plate footwear sustained bone stress accidents.
“Whereas I perceive the thrill, we have to contemplate how you can forestall accidents when athletes undertake this new footwear,” stated lead creator Adam Tenforde, MD, doctor in Mass Normal Brigham’s Sports activities drugs program and medical director of the Spaulding Nationwide Working Middle. “We hope this present opinion helps to information higher recognition of potential medical points associated to CFP footwear, acceptable use of this new know-how, and how you can advance strategies to soundly use these sneakers.”
Of their publication, Tenforde and colleagues describe 5 affected person instances, together with junior elite monitor and subject athletes in Europe and two athletes of their mid-30s who competed in endurance occasions in North America. All 5 skilled foot ache after utilizing carbon fiber plate footwear and have been later recognized with navicular bone stress accidents (BSI).
“Recognizing potential associations of navicular BSI in runners presenting with imprecise midfoot or ankle ache who use CFP footwear could also be vital to establish this high-risk harm,” the authors write.