The National Football Head and Neck Injury Registry: 14-year report on cervical quadriplegia
The National Football Head and Neck Injury Registry:
"The specter of catastrophic cervical neurotrauma resulting from athletic participation, although infrequent, has been consistently associated with football, water sports, gymnastics, rugby, and ice hockey. Injury involving intracranial hemorrhage can result in death or permanent neurologic impairment, whereas certain fractures and dislocations of the cervical spine are associated with quadriplegia. Athletic injuries to both the central nervous system and spinal cord demand our attention as an active area of clinical and basic injury. A review of the available literature reveals changing injury patterns as well as current concepts regarding the mechanism responsible for most athletic injuries to these structures. Accurate descriptions of the mechanism(s) responsible for a particular injury transcend simple academic interest. In order that preventive measures be implemented, the manner in which injury occurs must be accurately defined. The purpose of this article is to describe how the application of this principle resulted in the significant reduction of cervical spine injuries associated with quadriplegia that have occurred in tackle football since 1976."
Neck Injury in Sports
Neck Injury in Sports:
"Neck injuries in sports are common, typically debilitating, and quite predictable in retrospect by mechanism of injury as to one of four natures--sprains/strains, fractures, brachial plexus pinches/stretches, and spinal cord injury. Of these, the spinal cord injury, whether a concussion or contusion or physical disruption, is obviously the most severe and also, ironically, the best tracked because of its definition and notoriety when it is experienced. This article discusses the essence of what has been learned epidemiologically over recent decades since the advent of organized attention to spinal cord injuries among athletes."
SpringerLink - Article
Neck sprain in patients injured in car accidents: a retrospective study covering the period 1970-1994
Abstract:
Abstract During the 25-year period 1970-1994 694 patients were diagnosed with neck sprain resulting from a car accident at the Emergency Room of the University Hospital Groningen. The purpose of the present study was to analyse the prevalence, groups at risk and trends in these patients, taking into account changes in the number of cars per inhabitant and the average number of kilometres driven. We defined the population as car accident victims diagnosed with neck sprain. Binominal tests were used to obtain measures of statistical significance. Over the 25-year period a steady increase in the number of these patients was observed, from 10 in 1970 to 122 in 1994. The highest prevalence was found for the age group 25- to 29-year olds (28.3 per 100,000), followed by 40- to 44-year-olds (27.9 per 100,000). Across the life span, the male: female ratio was 1 : 0.98. Eight percent of the victims were treated as inpatients. The increase in the number of car accident victims with neck sprain appears not to be an isolated phenomenon, because a parallel rise in the number of cars per inhabitant and in the average number of kilometres driven was found. No direct relation was observed between seat belt legislation and the increase in neck sprain injuries. The effect of the media on awareness of the consequences of car accidents is discussed.
