Relationship between foot characteristics and injuries of the shoulder and elbow in collegiate-level baseball players

Abstract

The feet and toes of 110 collegiate-level baseball players were examined, and an analysis was performed to determine whether foot characteristics were correlated with throwing injuries of the shoulder and elbow.

A corn at the lateral side of the forefoot in the stance and lunge feet was significantly more prevalent in players with throwing injuries than in those without injuries. Compared with players without throwing injuries, those with throwing injuries tended to have a greater prevalence of varus deformities of the 4th or 5th toes of the stance foot, and of the 3rd to 5th toes of the lunge foot ; however, these intergroup differences were not significant.

These results suggest that players with throwing injuries could have instability during the pitching motion, with loading at the lateral side of the forefoot. The results also suggest that characteristic deformities of the foot and toes may be correlated with throwing injuries of the shoulder and elbow.