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You are here: Home / Resources / Current Trends in Sport Climbing Injuries after the Inclusion into the Olympic Program. Analysis of 633 Injuries within the years 2017/18

Current Trends in Sport Climbing Injuries after the Inclusion into the Olympic Program. Analysis of 633 Injuries within the years 2017/18

July 24, 2021

Lutter1, T. Tischer1, T. Hotfiel2, L. Frank3, A. Enz1, M. Simon4, V. Schöffl3,4,5,6

1  Department of Orthopedics, University Medical Center, Rostock, Germany 

2  Department of Orthopedics, University Medical Center, Erlangen, Germany 

3  Department of Trauma Surgery, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany 

4  Department of Sports Orthopedics, Sports Medicine, Sports Traumatology, Klinikum Bamberg, Germany 

5  Section of Wilderness Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Colorado School of 

Medicine, Denver, USA 

6  School of Clinical and Applied Sciences, Leeds Becket University, Leeds, UK

 

SUMMARY

Objective. To prospectively evaluate current demographics, distribution and severity of rock climb- ing-related injuries after the sport’s inclusion into the Olympic program and to analyze changes in comparison to two prior study populations. Methods. In 2017-2018, we performed a single-center injury survey including 436 climbing patients with a total number of 633 independent climbing-related injuries or complaints. Results. 77.1% of the injuries affected the upper extremities, 17.7% the lower and 5.2% other body regions. Injury severity was overall low (Union Internationale des Associations d’Alpinisme (UIAA) metric scale: 1.8 ± 1 (1-4)). The most frequent injuries were finger pulley injuries (12.3%) and finger tenosynovitis (10.6%). 43.9% of reported injuries were acute and 56.1% were chronic. Bouldering accidents were the leading cause of acute injuries (60.4%). Among shoulder injuries, superior labral lesion tears from anterior to posterior (SLAP) represented the leading diagnosis (29.8%). In comparison to our two prior study populations (1998-2001 and 2009-2012), we found: 1) an overall decrease in upper extremity injuries, 2) an increase of lower extremity injuries, 3) a constant decrease of finger pulley injuries and epicondylitis, 4) a rise of knee injuries and shoulder dislocations, 5) an increase of adolescents finger growth plate injuries. Conclusions. Severity of climbing injuries is low overall. Distinct trends are noticeable: being that some injury rates rose while others fell, preventative strategies only seem partially effective. There- fore, adjustment of preventive strategies is required.

KEY WORDS: Olympia; bouldering; speed; lead; injury surveillance

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