Hand injuries in sports – a retrospective analysis of 364 cases

Abstract

Background: Hand injuries are common in sports and associated with high drop-out rates and costs. Hence, efforts should strive for further risk prevention measures in order to increase safety in sports. This implies knowledge of sports injury risk profiles. So far, major surveillance programs exist mainly in Anglo-American countries, reflecting the specific concerns of sports in this part of the world. Data on sports injuries within Europe are scarce. As sports behavior appears to vary demographically, we hypothesised that risk injury profiles differ as well. Methods: To assess, whether the described sports injuries of the hand, published internationally, are applicable to the German population, we performed a five-year retrospective, single-center analysis of sports-related hand injuries, using the data of the Enterprise Clinical Research Warehouse of the Hannover Medical School.Results: Notable differences in comparison to other data were observed. Ball sports, cycling and equestrian sports caused most of the recorded hand injuries, which were predominantly fractures of the wrist and hand. Hand injuries in equestrian sports were associated with significantly higher operation and hospitalisation rates as well as a significantly longer inpatient treatment. Conclusion: Risk profiles for sports-related hand injuries appear to differ not only age- and sex-dependent, but also geographically. National as well as European hand trauma registries as well as a broad registry participation are necessary in order to accurately assess these risk patterns in the European latitudes and hence reduce hand injuries and the sequelae.