Specific Sports Related to Spinal Cord Injuries
This is a five-part series about sports-related spinal cord injuries from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS). The links below will help you easily navigate through this article series:
- Sports-related Neck Injuries
- Sports-related Cervical Spinal Cord Injures
- Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Spinal Cord Injuries
- Specific Sports Related to Spinal Cord Injuries
- Sports and Spinal Cord Injuries: Prevention Tips
Cycling
An estimated 80% of fatal bicycle accidents involving children 14 and younger
occur because of the bicyclist's behavior, such as riding into the street without
stopping, swerving into traffic, running stop signs, or riding against the flow
of traffic.
Football
Neck injuries are usually associated with high-velocity collisions between players,
causing acceleration or deceleration of the head on the neck. Acceleration often
causes a whiplash
type of extension force on the neck, while deceleration often results in flexion
forces. Spearing, which has been banned in American football since 1976, happens
when a player uses the helmet/head as the first point of contact with another
player. Spearing is a significant cause of cervical spine injuries and quadriplegia.
- Cervical-spine injuries are estimated to occur in 10-15% of all football players, most commonly in linemen and defensive players.
- During the 2007 football season, there were a total of eight cervical spinal cord injuries with incomplete neurological recovery. Six of the injuries occurred at the high school level and one at the professional level.
- A majority of catastrophic SCIs occur in games. During the 2007 season, five injuries took place in games, two in practice, and one in a scrimmage game.
- Nine percent of catastrophic cervical SCIs took place by being tackled.
- During the past 31 years, there have been a total of 278 football players with incomplete neurological recovery related to cervical SCI: 229 high school players; 33 college players; 10 professionals; and six sandlot players. Data indicate a reduction in the number of cervical cord injuries with incomplete neurological recovery when compared to data published in the early 1970s.
- During the 31-year period from 1977-2007, 193 of the 278 players with cervical SCIs were playing defense.
Sources
- National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, Annual Survey of
Catastrophic Football Injuries 1977-2007.
- US Consumer Product Safety Commission, National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), 2007.
American Association of Neurological Surgeons
Neurosurgerytoday.org
Sports-related Neck Injury, September 2008
Learn about the American Association of Neurological Surgeons
