Sasadai J1, Urabe Y1, Shimizu R1, Kobayashi T1, Hirata K2, Maeda N1
1Hiroshima University, Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Department of Sports Rehabilitation, Hiroshima, Japan, 2Hiroshima University Hospital, Sports Medical Center, Hiroshima, Japan
Background: Wheelchair rugby is one of the Paralympic sports for quadriplegic athletes and equivalent disabilities. Heavy contact between wheelchairs is permitted, and falling often occurs. Falling from wheelchair might cause various sport injuries including contusions, fractures, and concussions. Although there are some injury and illness survey during Paralympic Games were held and reported (Derman W, et al.: 2013 & 2018), their situations how injuries occurred has not been clarified yet. In addition, there is no research about falling in wheelchair rugby.
Purpose: In this study, we investigated and classified the situation of falls in wheelchair rugby using official videos to understand the risk of injuries related to falling.
Methods: A total of 18 game videos of wheelchair rugby at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games were obtained from among the official videos of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The situation of falling was surveyed in the official videos by three physical therapists familiar with disabled sports, separately. The number of falls, times of falling occurred, body part that contacted the floor first, suspected cases of serious injuries, return to play or not were recorded. Falling was defined as being unable to drive the wheelchair such as the body part came into contact with the floor.
Results: As a total of 96 falls (5.3 per game) occurred. In the first and second halves of the game, 37 and 54 falls occurred respectively, and 5 falls occurred during overtime. The hand was the largest number of first body part contacting the ground with 60 falls (63%), followed by elbow, shoulder, back and head. There was one case suspected of serious injuries such as bruising to the head or neck. After the falling, 12 substitutions of involved athletes were made, and 8 athletes returned during the game.
Conclusion(s): From these results, athletes were in contact with the upper limb in most of falling, and finally 4 athletes could not return to play during the match. Through all sports of the Rio 2016 Paralympics, injuries to the upper limb were most prevalent, and the shoulder joint was the most commonly injured anatomical area followed by wrist, hand and finger complex (Derman W, et al.: 2018). It is possible that their contacting with upper limb at the time of falling may lead to these injuries.
There was one case in 18 games where the impact on the head or neck was suspected. Although it was not particularly much compared with other contact sports, it needs appropriate evaluation and treatment. Recently, lack of understanding and guidelines regarding assessment, management and prevention of concussion in Para athletes has been pointed out (Webborn N, et al.: 2017). In future, it is necessary to establish evaluation of concussion suitable for each impairment.
Implications: This research could be useful to understand mechanism of sports injuries related to falling in wheelchair athletes, and finally lead to prevention of them.
Keywords: Wheelchair rugby, Paralympic Games, Video analysis
Funding acknowledgements: We have no funding acknowledgement in this study.
Purpose: In this study, we investigated and classified the situation of falls in wheelchair rugby using official videos to understand the risk of injuries related to falling.
Methods: A total of 18 game videos of wheelchair rugby at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games were obtained from among the official videos of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The situation of falling was surveyed in the official videos by three physical therapists familiar with disabled sports, separately. The number of falls, times of falling occurred, body part that contacted the floor first, suspected cases of serious injuries, return to play or not were recorded. Falling was defined as being unable to drive the wheelchair such as the body part came into contact with the floor.
Results: As a total of 96 falls (5.3 per game) occurred. In the first and second halves of the game, 37 and 54 falls occurred respectively, and 5 falls occurred during overtime. The hand was the largest number of first body part contacting the ground with 60 falls (63%), followed by elbow, shoulder, back and head. There was one case suspected of serious injuries such as bruising to the head or neck. After the falling, 12 substitutions of involved athletes were made, and 8 athletes returned during the game.
Conclusion(s): From these results, athletes were in contact with the upper limb in most of falling, and finally 4 athletes could not return to play during the match. Through all sports of the Rio 2016 Paralympics, injuries to the upper limb were most prevalent, and the shoulder joint was the most commonly injured anatomical area followed by wrist, hand and finger complex (Derman W, et al.: 2018). It is possible that their contacting with upper limb at the time of falling may lead to these injuries.
There was one case in 18 games where the impact on the head or neck was suspected. Although it was not particularly much compared with other contact sports, it needs appropriate evaluation and treatment. Recently, lack of understanding and guidelines regarding assessment, management and prevention of concussion in Para athletes has been pointed out (Webborn N, et al.: 2017). In future, it is necessary to establish evaluation of concussion suitable for each impairment.
Implications: This research could be useful to understand mechanism of sports injuries related to falling in wheelchair athletes, and finally lead to prevention of them.
Keywords: Wheelchair rugby, Paralympic Games, Video analysis
Funding acknowledgements: We have no funding acknowledgement in this study.
Topic: Sport & sports injuries; Disability & rehabilitation; Musculoskeletal
Ethics approval required: No
Institution: the International Paralympic Committee
Ethics committee: Medical and Scientific
Reason not required: This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All data were collected from the IPC official videos. We conducted this research with confirmation of the IPC.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
