Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, Denver, Colorado.
Department of Orthopaedics, Seton Hall-Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, South Orange, New Jersey.
Sports Health. 2018 Mar/Apr;10(2):119-124. doi: 10.1177/1941738117736493. Epub 2017 Oct 25.
Pitching is a common mechanism of injury in baseball, with known risk factors for elbow injuries among adolescent pitchers.
Elbow injury rates and mechanisms will differ between high school baseball and softball players.
Descriptive epidemiology study.
Level 3.
Baseball- and softball-related injury data from the 2005-2006 through 2014-2015 academic years were collected from the High School Reporting Information Online (RIO) Internet-based data collection tool. Athlete-exposure (AE) and injury data were collected by certified athletic trainers. Rate ratios (RRs) were calculated comparing injury rates in the 2 populations. Injury proportion ratios (IPRs) comparing elbow injuries in pitchers and nonpitchers were calculated as the proportion of all elbow injuries in pitchers divided by the proportion of all elbow injuries in nonpitchers.
A total of 214 elbow injuries in male baseball players occurred over 2,327,774 AEs, for an overall elbow injury rate of 0.92 per 10,000 AEs. A total of 75 elbow injuries were reported in female softball players over 1,731,644 AEs, for an overall rate of 0.43 per 10,000 AEs. The rate of elbow injury was significantly higher for baseball than softball (RR, 2.12; 95% CI, 1.64-2.77). A significantly greater proportion of elbow injuries in baseball were pitching-related compared with those from softball, with 50.2% occurring while pitching in baseball versus 11.0% in softball (IPR, 4.58; 95% CI, 2.35-8.93). If all injuries occurring during pitching were removed from both sports, the difference in elbow injury rate for baseball and softball would no longer be significant (RR, 1.19; 95% CI, 0.88-1.62).
The rate of elbow injuries is significantly higher in baseball than softball. This is attributable to differences in rates of pitching-related injuries between these 2 groups.
These results demonstrate that overhand pitching increases risk of elbow injury in high school athletes.
投球是棒球中常见的受伤机制，青少年投手中存在已知的肘部受伤风险因素。
高中棒球和垒球运动员的肘部受伤率和机制将有所不同。
描述性流行病学研究。
3 级。
从 2005-2006 学年到 2014-2015 学年，从基于互联网的 High School Reporting Information Online（RIO）数据收集工具中收集了棒球和垒球相关的受伤数据。由认证的运动训练师收集运动员暴露（AE）和受伤数据。通过比较这两个群体的受伤率来计算比率比（RR）。计算投球手和非投球手中肘部受伤的受伤比例比（IPR），将投球手中所有肘部受伤的比例除以非投球手中所有肘部受伤的比例。
在 2327744 次 AE 中，共有 214 名男性棒球运动员发生肘部受伤，肘部受伤总发生率为每 10000 次 AE 0.92 次。在 1731644 次 AE 中，共有 75 名女性垒球运动员发生肘部受伤，肘部受伤总发生率为每 10000 次 AE 0.43 次。与垒球相比，棒球的肘部受伤率明显更高（RR，2.12；95%CI，1.64-2.77）。在棒球中，与垒球相比，更多的肘部受伤与投球有关，其中 50.2%在投球时发生在棒球中，而在垒球中为 11.0%（IPR，4.58；95%CI，2.35-8.93）。如果从这两个运动中都去除所有发生在投球时的受伤，棒球和垒球的肘部受伤率差异将不再显著（RR，1.19；95%CI，0.88-1.62）。
与垒球相比，棒球的肘部受伤率明显更高。这归因于这两组之间投球相关受伤率的差异。
这些结果表明，过头投球会增加高中运动员肘部受伤的风险。
