Measurement of severity of sports injuries: an epidemiological study

Objective: To evaluate the severity of sports injuries in relation to the s everity of injuries due to other causes and in relation to type of sport, u sing generally applied measures of injury severity. Subjects: A total of 12 403 patients, 4-50 years old, who were treated in t he trauma department of the Groningen University Hospital for a sports inju ry, from January 1990 until January 1997. Method: All patients treated because of an injury entered the study. A dist inction was made between injuries caused by playing sports, home and leisur e accidents, traffic accidents and violence. The severity of the injuries w as assessed by using the criteria of rate of admission, Injury Severity Sca le (ISS). Finally the sports injuries were analysed with regard to type of sport. Results: In total, 57 760 injuries were registered. After injuries due to h ome and leisure accidents (44%; 25 228) sports injuries (21%; 12 403) were the most frequent cause of injury. Of the patients with a sports injury, 7. 9% (980) were admitted, which is more than with home and leisure accidents (6.7%; 1690) but less than with traffic accidents (21.5%; 2202) and violenc e (9.3%; 364). In a majority of cases, admission was related to a limited n umber of types of sport. The mean ISS of sports injuries was low, as with i njuries following home and leisure accidents and violence. The percentage o f sports injuries with an ISS higher than or equal to 16 and the percentage mortality were both low in comparison to injuries due to violence or traff ic accidents. Conclusions: Sports injuries rank second highest in terms of cause of injur y, after home and leisure accidents; and rank third in terms of severity, a fter traffic accidents and violence. Even though the ISS is low, sports inj uries may have serious consequences.