Sport injuries in team handball. A one-year prospective study of sixteen men's senior teams of a superior nonprofessional level

Romain Seil*, Stefan Rupp, Siegbert Tempelhof, Dieter Kohn

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

195 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

One hundred eighty-six players of 16 teams in 2 male team handball senior divisions were observed prospectively for 1 season to study the injury incidence in relation to exposure in games and practices. Ninety-one injuries were recorded. Injury incidence was evaluated at 2.5 injuries per 1000 player-hours, with a significantly higher incidence in game injuries (14.3 injuries per 1000 game-hours) compared with practice injuries (0.6 injuries per 1000 practice-hours). Practice injury incidence was higher in the lower performance level group, and game injury incidence was higher in the high- level group. The upper extremity was involved in 37% of the injuries, and the lower extremity in 54%. The knee was the most commonly injured joint, followed by the finger, ankle, and shoulder. Knee injuries were the most severe injuries, and they were more frequent in high-level players. There was an increase in the severity of injury with respect to performance level. The injury mechanism revealed a high number of offensive injuries, one-third of them occurring during a counterattack. The injury pattern showed certain variations with respect to player position and performance level. Prophylactic equipment was used by a majority of players at the higher performance level.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)681-687
Number of pages7
JournalAmerican Journal of Sports Medicine
Volume26
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1998
Externally publishedYes

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