Wheelchair Basketball: morpho-functional and physiological aspects of the shoulder

Wheelchair basketball is one of the most popular paralympic sports. It is a great physical activity that guarantees important health benefits and promotes the well-being and social inclusion for disabled people. At the same time, wheelchair basketball involves a significant risk of injuries for wheelchair basketball players and upper limbs are the most burdened body segments. In particular, sport specific gestures lead to progressive overload of the shoulder joint, which usually results in shoulder pain. For these reasons, scientific and technological progress should improve the development of rehabilitative strategies to promote shoulder health and then to reduce shoulder pain. Within the spectrum of new technologies, electromyography is a tool that allows real-time measurement and to take advantage of the potentiality of biofeedback, so it has been used previously to improve the outcome of rehabilitation treatments. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to summarize and analyze the current evidence regarding the use of electromyography, as a rehabilitative strategy, to reduce shoulder pain in wheelchair basketball athletes. Following the PRISMA statement guidelines (PROSPERO - 2023, n° CRD42023470395), a total of 10 studies met the inclusion and exclusion criteria after a search of three databases (Pubmed, Google Scholar and Cochrane Library). The result of this review highlights the importance of electromyography and surface electromyography in the prevention and treatment of shoulder pain in wheelchair basketball athletes. Moreover, this examination emphasizes that using surface electromyography as a biofeedback seems to be an effective way to speed up shoulder pain rehabilitation outcomes in wheelchair basketball athletes.