A statistical analysis to characterize treatment adherence of the 18 most common diagnoses seen at a sports medicine clinic.

The purpose of this study is to provide a statistical analysis of the length of treatment patients experience with one or more of the most common athletic diagnoses seen at a sports medicine clinic. Based on a computerized analysis of 1707 patients the following statistical trends were documented. A hierarchy of the 18 most common diagnoses was established, indicating the importance of injury to the anterior cruciate ligament in the sports medicine clinic setting. Surgical groups required longer treatment times than those patients with nonsurgical diagnoses. Patients who required longer treatment programs could be statistically separated from shorter treatment programs based on their condition (fully active versus improved versus status quo) when released from therapy. Multiple injuries had no effect of increased treatment time when compared to isolated injuries for long-term or short-term diagnoses. EDITORS NOTE: An addendum update from 1984's statistics to 1986 appears in the article as Table 5.J Ortho Sports Phys Ther 1987;9(1):40-46.