Catastrophic Sports Injuries: Causation and Prevention : JBJS

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Catastrophic Sports Injuries

Causation and Prevention

Boden, Barry P. MD1,2,a; Anderson, Scott A. ATC3; Sheehan, Frances T. PhD4

Author Information

1The Orthopaedic Center, The Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics, Rockville, Maryland

2Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland

3College Athletic Trainers’ Society, Knoxville, Tennessee

4Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland

aEmail for Corresponding author: [email protected]

Investigation performed at The Orthopaedic Center, The Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics, Rockville, Maryland

Disclosure: The Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest forms are provided with the online version of the article (https://links.lww.com/JBJS/H773).

The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery 106(1):p 62-73, January 3, 2024. | DOI: 10.2106/JBJS.23.00335

Abstract

  • ➤ Catastrophic injuries in U.S. high school and college athletes are rare but devastating injuries.
  • ➤ Catastrophic sports injuries are classified as either traumatic, caused by direct contact during sports participation, or nontraumatic, associated with exertion while participating in a sport.
  • ➤ Football is associated with the greatest number of traumatic and nontraumatic catastrophic injuries for male athletes, whereas cheerleading has the highest number of traumatic catastrophic injuries and basketball has the highest number of nontraumatic catastrophic injuries for female athletes.
  • ➤ The incidence of traumatic catastrophic injuries for all sports has declined over the past 40 years, due to effective rule changes, especially in football, pole-vaulting, cheerleading, ice hockey, and rugby. Further research is necessary to reduce the incidence of structural brain injury in contact sports such as football.
  • ➤ The incidence of nontraumatic catastrophic injuries has increased over the last 40 years and requires additional research and preventive measures. Avoiding overexertion during training, confirming sickle cell trait status in high school athletes during the preparticipation physical examination, and developing cost-effective screening tools for cardiac abnormalities are critical next steps.

Written work prepared by employees of the Federal Government as part of their official duties is, under the United States Copyright Act, a ‘work of the United States Government’ for which copyright protection under that Act is not available. As such, copyright protection does not extend to the contributions of employees of the Federal Government prepared as part of their employment.

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