DATA SOURCES: The relevant literature was searched using SPORT DISCUS (keywords: martial arts injuries, judo injuries, karate injuries, and taekwondo injuries and ProQuest (keywords: martial arts, taekwondo, karate, and judo), as well as hand searches of the reference lists.
MAIN RESULTS: In general, the absolute number of injuries in girls is lower than in boys. However, when expressed relative to exposure, the injury rates of girls are higher. Injuries by body region reflect the specific techniques and rules of the martial art. The upper extremities tend to get injured more often in judo, the head and face in karate and the lower extremities in taekwondo. Activities engaged in at the time of injury included performing a kick or being thrown in judo, while punching in karate, and performing a roundhouse kick in taekwondo. Injury type tends to be martial art specific with sprains reported in judo and taekwondo and epistaxis in karate. Injury risk factors in martial arts include age, body weight and exposure.
CONCLUSIONS: Preventive measures should focus on education of coaches, referees, athletes, and tournament directors. Although descriptive research should continue, analytical studies are urgently needed.
OBJECTIVE: To report the successful rehabilitation and the training progress of an elite high performance martial art exponent after selective thoracic fusion for Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS).
SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Posterior spinal fusion for AIS will result in loss of spinal flexibility. The process of rehabilitation after posterior spinal fusion for AIS remains controversial and there are few reports of return to elite sports performance after posterior spinal fusion for AIS.
METHODS: We report a case of a 25-year-old lady who was a national Wu Shu exponent. She was a Taolu (Exhibition) exponent. She underwent Selective Thoracic Fusion (T4 to T12) using alternate level pedicle screw placement augmented with autogenous local bone graft in June 2014. She commenced her training at 3-month postsurgery and the intensity of her training was increased after 6 months postsurgery. We followed her up to 2 years postsurgery and showed no instrumentation failure or lost of correction.
RESULTS: After selective thoracic fusion, her training process consisted of mainly speed training, core strengthening, limb strengthening, and flexibility exercises. At 17 months of postoperation, she participated in 13th World Wu Shu Championship 2015 and won the silver medal.
CONCLUSION: Return to elite high-performance martial arts sports was possible after selective thoracic fusion for AIS. The accelerated and intensive training regime did not lead to any instrumentation failure and complications.
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2.
SETTING: To test this hypothesis, we analysed 384 incident reports gathered by the US Powered Paragliding Association from 1995 to 2012. The majority of the incidents occurred in the USA, while 26 incidents occurred elsewhere: Canada (8), Mexico (5), Panama (1), China (1), Japan (1), Malaysia (1), Indonesia (Java) (1), Europe (8): of which Spain (1), Belgium (1), UK (3), Italy (1), Romania (1), unknown (1).
OUTCOME: To identify the most affected body area and the most common type of injury sustained in PPG, and to highlight any differences from paragliding.
RESULTS: The most affected body areas in PPG were the upper limbs (44.5%), followed by the lower limbs (32%), the back (9.8%), the head (7%), the pelvis (3.1), the chest (2.7%) and the abdomen (0.7%) (p<0.001). The engine caused 43 accidents (11.2%) in our study and was responsible for the majority of injuries to the upper limbs. The number of fatal accidents in PPG is not lower than in paragliding and hang-gliding.
CONCLUSIONS: To help prevent the specific injuries of PPG, the most appropriate equipment should be identified. The results of this study also suggest that, in the future, this sport should be analysed separately from paragliding.
OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the effectiveness of the UDP in the last 6 wk of rehabilitation.
DESIGN: Pre-post study with 2-tailed paired t tests for limited a priori comparisons to examine differences.
SETTING: National Sports Institute of Malaysia.
PARTICIPANTS: 24 Malaysian national athletes.
INTERVENTIONS: 7 sessions/wk of 90 min with 3 sessions allocated for 5 or 6 UDP exercises.
MAIN OUTCOMES: Significant improvements for men and women were noted. Tests included 20-m sprint, 1-repetition-maximum single-leg press, standing long jump, single-leg sway, and a psychological questionnaire.
RESULTS: For men and women, respectively, average strength improvements of 22% (d = 0.96) and 29% (d = 1.05), sprint time of 3% (d = 1.06) and 4% (d = 0.58), and distance jumped of 4% (d = 0.59) and 6% (d = 0.47) were noted. In addition, athletes reported improved perceived confidence in their abilities. All athletes improved in each functional test except for long jump in 2 of the athletes. Mediolateral sway decreased in 18 of the 22 athletes for the injured limb.
CONCLUSION: The prevention training with UDP resulted in improved conditioning and seems to decrease mediolateral sway.