TY - JOUR T1 - Inguinal-related groin pain in athletes: a pathological potpourri JF - BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine JO - BMJ OPEN SP EX MED DO - 10.1136/bmjsem-2022-001387 VL - 8 IS - 3 SP - e001387 AU - Zarko Vuckovic AU - Andreas Serner AU - Willem M P Heijboer AU - Adam Weir Y1 - 2022/09/01 UR - http://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/8/3/e001387.abstract N2 - Athletes who have pain in the inguinal canal region with no actual hernia present as a common challenge in clinical practice. While the differential diagnosis of groin pain is broad, our editorial focuses on musculoskeletal causes.A survey of 23 international groin pain experts using the case of a male football player with pain in the inguinal region was performed in 2014. The experts were asked which term they would use to describe the diagnosis.1 The 23 experts used 22 different terms, including inguinal-related groin pain, sportsman’s hernia, incipient hernia, inguinal disruption, posterior wall weakness, Gilmore’s groin and core muscle injury to name but a few.Following a subsequent expert consensus meeting on terminology and definitions, this group agreed on ‘inguinal-related groin pain’ as the preferred term.2 While there is debate about the appropriate terminology, there is even more uncertainty surrounding the underlying pathology. There are numerous hypotheses on the pathology of inguinal-related groin pain. This ‘pathological potpourri’ causes confusion in the literature and in clinical practice.Some of the different theories reported in the literature are listed in table 1. … ER -