The UIAA Medical Commission Injury Classification for Mountaineering and Climbing Sports

Abstract

Objective Variations in definitions, scores, and methodologies have created differences in the results and conclusions obtained from studies on mountaineering and climbing sports injuries and illnesses; this has made interstudy comparisons difficult or impossible. To develop a common, simple, and sport-specific scoring system to classify injuries and illnesses in mountaineering and climbing studies; such retrospective scoring would facilitate the analysis and surveillance of their frequencies, severity and fatalities, and outcomes of any treatment. Methods The UIAA (The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation) makes recommendations, sets policy, and advocates on behalf of the climbing and mountaineering community internationally through its various commissions. Using a nominal group consensus model approach, a working group was formed during the UIAA Medical Commission's meeting in Adršpach – Zdoňov, in the Czech Republic, 2008. This group critically examined climbing and other relevant literature for various methodological approaches in measuring injury incident rates and severity, including data sources, and produced a working document that was later edited and ratified by all members of the UIAA Medical Commission. Results Definitions of injury location, injury classification, and fatality risk are proposed. Case fatality, time-related injury risk, and a standardized metric climbing difficulty scale are also defined. Conclusions The medical commission of the UIAA recommends the use of the described criteria and scores for future research in mountaineering and climbing sports in order to enable robust and comprehensive interstudy comparisons and epidemiological analysis.

Feet injuries in rock climbers

“…Killian et al [75] surveyed 100 climbers through a questionnaire on feet conditions. 73 were male, 27 female, the mean climbing level was 5.109 US (7.0 UIAA [16] ). 81% of the climber`s complaint about discomfort through the climbing shoes.…”

“…Schöffl et al [78] evaluated 30 high level male sport climbers for chronic foot deformations. Every climber was at least climbing on a UIAA 9.0 level [mean climbing level 9.7 (UIAA MedCom metric scale [82] )] and climbing more than 5 years (mean climbing years 12.8 years). Training hours per wk were a mean 12.3 h, which refers to roughly 10 h per wk within the small climbing shoes.…”

“…While alpine climbing has its inherent dangers, sport, indoor and competition climbing showed a minor injury risk [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] . Also, most of the injuries occurring are of minor severity and often due to overuse [1,3,16] . In rock climbing mostly only the hands and feet are used to be holding onto the rock or artificial climbing wall; thus placing extreme forces on the distal extremities [9,13, .…”

“…High ability climbers experience more foot deformities and injuries compared to climbers of lower ability due to the common practice of wearing climbing shoes sized smaller than normal street wear shoes (Figures 3 and 4A, B, C) [75,77,78] . Schöffl et al [78] reported about an average shoe seize difference between normal shoes and climbing shoes of 2.3 ± 0.73 continental seizes in high ability rock climbers [mean climbing level 9.7 (UIAA MedCom metric scale [82] )]. Killian et al [75] reported about typically 1 to 2 seizes reduction (mean 1.699) in average climbers [mean climbing level 7.0 (UIAA MedCom metric scale [82] )].…”

“…Schöffl et al [78] reported about an average shoe seize difference between normal shoes and climbing shoes of 2.3 ± 0.73 continental seizes in high ability rock climbers [mean climbing level 9.7 (UIAA MedCom metric scale [82] )]. Killian et al [75] reported about typically 1 to 2 seizes reduction (mean 1.699) in average climbers [mean climbing level 7.0 (UIAA MedCom metric scale [82] )]. 80%-90% of the climbers reported [75,78] of suffering pain while using their climbing shoes, and that they accept to suffer this discomfort for improved performance [78] .…”