Speaker: Lacerations most common surfing injury

Issue: July 2014

BOULDER, Colo. — Surfers sustain lacerations more than any other injury, according to a presenter at the International Extreme Sports Medicine Annual Congress, here.

“There are very few collisions between athletes … [and] there are very few collisions between the athlete and the ground,” Andrew T. Nathanson, MD, FACEP, FAWM, a clinical associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University, said.

In a study of a cohort of professional surfers during a 6-year period, Nathanson said of the acute injuries that prevented surfers from going to work or school for more than 1 day, lacerations accounted for 42% of injuries. Of the lacerations sustained by the athletes, 24% were to the face, 17% were to the head and 20% were to the foot. These lacerations were usually caused by the fins of the surfboard, an instance that accounted for 41% of lacerations. Overuse injuries were also prevalent, particularly in the shoulder.

Of the 84 total deaths reported during amateur surfing, drowning was the leading cause of death, which accounted for 53% of fatalities, he said. At 15%, shark attacks were the next highest cause of death, though Nathanson said the prevalence of this is likely due to media coverage.

Despite these statistics, Nathanson noted surfing’s safety, going as far as to say it was safer than soccer. He said the injury rates in both sports are about 6 per 1,000 hours, although “not all waves are created equal.”

Orthopedics Today is the medical media partner for the International Extreme Sports Medicine Congress. —by Christian Ingram

Reference:

Nathanson AT. Surfing injuries. Presented at: International Extreme Sports Medicine Annual Congress; June 13-14, 2014; Boulder, Colo.

Disclosure: Nathanson has no relevant financial disclosures