Injuries in Amateur and Professional Wheel Gymnastics

PURPOSE: Wheel gymnastics is an acrobatic sport with a tradition of nearly 100 years. It is known from gymnastic competitions as well as from shows. So far, there have been no studies or case reports about injuries in wheel gymnastics. METHODS: This retrospective study of wheel gymnasts surveyed 51 professionals, 100 semi-professionals and 352 amateurs by questionnaire. RESULTS: 7925 injuries and 422 overuse syndromes were found in 988718.9 hours of training leading to a loss of 17310.3 training days. Professionals reported significantly (p < 0.001) more injuries and overuse syndromes with significantly more injuries of the wrist (p < 0.001), knee (p < 0.001), hip/thigh (p = 0.003), ankle/foot (p = 0.013) and elbow (p = 0.033). Significant differences were found in the time per injury rate. Amateurs practised 155.8 hours, semi-professionals 221.8 hours and 331.7 hours until one injury occurred. The most frequent pain was found in the region of the wrist, spine, shoulder and ankle. A positive correlation significant at the 0.0001 level was found between the average pain frequency and the average frequency of wearing protective gear of the elbow, wrist, knee and ankle. CONCLUSIONS: This study firstly describes specific injuries of wheel gymnastics. This sport bears the danger of falling from up to 3 meter heigt on bare floor. Physicians should be aware of the common risks in this highly acrobatic kind of gymnastics.