Epidemiology of squash injuries requiring hospital treatment.

Abstract

Information about sports injuries, including the cause, nature, diagnosis and patient details can be effectively obtained from treatment settings. While sports injury surveillance, based on injuries presenting for medical treatment at a hospital only provides details on a small proportion of the total number of injuries, these datasets are useful for describing the more severe injuries sustained during sport. Injury surveillance methods utilising data from emergency department and hospital admissions can assist in identifying priority areas for future injury prevention strategies for the more severe, acute injuries sustained in sport. There have been very few studies of squash injuries based on hospital treated data. These studies have shown that squash has a relatively high incidence of severe injury when compared to other sports. The lower extremities account for 32–58% of all squash injuries. Whilst not the most frequent, injuries to the eye have the potential to be very severe. Due to methodological differences eye injury rates range from 3.7 to 33.3 per 100,000 playing sessions. The prevention of squash injuries in Australia has recently gained attention, and these research efforts require relevant up to date information. This study therefore aimed to describe the squash injury cases treated in hospital settings in Victoria, Australia for the first time.