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Risk of hand, wrist injuries in high school athletes indicates need for prevention efforts
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Results from this study indicated high school athletes were at risk for hand and wrist injuries. Findings also showed injury rates and patterns varied by sport and gender, demonstrating a need for sport-specific prevention efforts.
As part of the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, researchers collected data on athlete exposure and hand and wrist injury data for 11 academic years, from 2005 to 2006 through 2015 to 2016.
Investigators found that during 40,195,806 athletic exposures, high school athletes sustained 6,723 hand/wrist injuries. This translated to a rate of 1.7 injuries per 10,000 athletic exposures. Investigators noted a greater rate of injury during competition vs. practice. The greatest rate of hand/wrist injuries was seen in football followed by boys’ lacrosse, girls’ softball, wrestling, girls’ field hockey, boys’ ice hockey and girls’ basketball.
Fractures, contusions and ligament strains were among the most common injuries. Most athletes returned to play in fewer than 7 days; however, 12.4% of injuries kept athletes out of sports for at least 3 weeks. – by Monica Jaramillo
Disclosure: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
Perspective
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David C. Ring, MD, PhD
It is no surprise that hand injuries are common in sports. I imagine they are more common that what was logged in the database. For instance, sprains and bruises are almost certainly more common than fractures, but the athletes may not report them and when they do, they may not be logged in the database. Most sprains and bruises are inconsequential, so the focus should probably be on the fractures. To learn from these data, it would be helpful to know the number of fractures that: 1) were potentially preventable with specific equipment or rule adjustments; 2) benefitted from surgery or time out of sport; and 3) caused permanent impairment.
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Johnson BK, et al. Pediatrics. 2017;doi:10.1542/peds.2017-1255.
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