Abstract:

Introduction: In this study, we evaluated sports injuries in 2017 Winter European Youth Olympic Festival (W-EYOF). We aimed to analyze and explain the, characteristics and types of sports injuries that occur during the games. Materials an Methods: In this retrospective descriptive study, we evaluated the admissions of Olympic athletes to the emergency room with sport injuries between 11-18 February 2017, retrospectively. We evaluated the age, gender, sports branch, injury site and treatment processes of all patient. Whether the frequency and the types of injuries vary depending on the sports branches were analyzed. Results: 644 athletes participated to W-EYOF2017, and 38 sport injuries were identified during the competitions held in 9 sport branches. The injury prevalence was 5.88 per 1000 athletes throughout the games. According to gender, the rate of injury was 9,44% in female and 3,57% in male. Among the injuries, knee was seen most frequently with a rate of 31.6%. The anatomical regions where sports injuries were detected were the pelvis (15.8%), the shoulder (15.8%), and the wrist and hand (10.5%). The most common injuries were seen in snowboarding (42.1%), Alpine skiing (28.9%) and ice hockey (21.2%). When patients are classified according to the type of injury, 78.4% was soft tissue trauma. These patients were discharged with recommendations such as rest, immobilization, cold application and elevation (RICE). The rate of cases requiring surgical intervention in all injuries was 7.89%. The prevalence of injuries requiring surgical intervention in the athlete population is 4.5 per 100,000 people. Conclusion: Athletes have a high risk of injury in sports based on physical contact and challenge or requiring high effort, speed, and torque.In this context the most commonly injured anatomical region is the knee. Measures can be planned to reduce injuries in competitions such as Alpine skiing, snowboarding and ice hockey.

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