Background: Shoulder injuries is one of the serious injuries facing swimmers, subacromial impingement on the top of these limiting, career threatening injuries and to know how to solve this problem we should have information about the rate of incidence to make maximum benefit to the community of swimming in Egypt. A lot of studies available about the management of subacromial impingement from the surgical, pharmacological and physiotherapy approaches but it was difficult to find any studies investigated the injury rate in Egypt.
Objective: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence in different ages and sex among Egyptian swimmers via clinical testing and to investigate the association of some intrinsic predisposing factors with the incidence of sub-acromial impingement syndrome (SAIS) in Egyptian competitive swimmers.
Individuals and Methods: A cross-sectional survey study with 405 swimmers who had body mass index from 18.5 – 24.9 kg/m2. Their ages ranged from 12 to 25 years old. They were divided into 5 subgroups for each gender, all swimmers were assessed by measuring external/internal shoulder rotation ratio, Lift-off test, Hawkins-Kennedy Test, Neers test and modified DASH Questionnaire. Results: The prevalence of subacromial impingement among Egyptian swimmers were 37.3%. It was present in 80 (38.6%) of female individuals and in 71 (35.9%) of male patients. 28 (35.9%) of individuals had subacromial impingement with 12-13 years old, 26 (32.5%) of individuals with 14-15 years old, 37 (44.6%) of individuals with 16-17 years old, 28 (35%) of individuals with 18-19 years old and in 32 (38.1%) of individuals with 20-25 years old. There was no significant correlation between subacromial impingement and age or sex (p = 0.56). Conclusion: This study suggested that there is a prevalence of subacromial impingement among Egyptian swimmers with no significant association between age or sex.