Wheel-gymnastic-related injuries and overuse syndromes of amateurs and professionals.

PURPOSE: Wheel gymnastics is a gymnastic discipline with a history of nearly 100 years. So far, there have been no epidemiological studies on injuries in wheel gymnastics.

METHODS

The retrospective study of wheel gymnasts surveyed 151 "professionals" competing in the first national league and 352 "amateurs" by questionnaire.

RESULTS

4,898 injuries and 714 overuse syndromes were found in 988,718.9 h of training, leading to a time loss of 16,302 days. An incidence of 9.44 injuries per 1,000 h was found in wheel gymnastics. "Professionals" had a highly significant lower incidence than "amateurs" (5.23 vs. 11.24 injuries per 1,000 h; p < 0.001). The most common injuries in wheel gymnastics were found at the head (28.1 %), spine (13.75 %), ankle/foot (11.88 %), hip/thigh (11.87 %) and knee (11.61 %). 4,502 (91.9 %) injuries were classified as minor. 221 (4.5 %) injuries caused a time loss of between 1 week and 1 month. 175 (3.6 %) major injuries caused a time loss of longer than 1 month. 1.68 overuse syndromes per 1,000 h were described.

CONCLUSION

Wheel gymnastics has a high incidence but low severity of injuries compared with other gymnastic sports. Physicians should be aware of the common dangers and overuse syndromes in this highly acrobatic gymnastic discipline.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.