Rhythmic gymnasts' injuries in a pediatric sports medicine clinic in the United States: a 10-year retrospective chart review

• Published in: The Physician and sportsmedicine 2022-09, Vol.50 (5), p.454-460
• Main Authors: Gulati, Reeti, Rychlik, Karen, Wild, Jacob Thomas, LaBella, Cynthia R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: epidemiology; injury; pediatric sports medicine; Rhythmic gymnastics
• ISSN: 0091-3847; 2326-3660
• DOI: 10.1080/00913847.2022.2040890

Rhythmic gymnastics injuries have not been studied thoroughly especially in the United States. Existing research studies are predominantly from Europe or Canada or from more than 15 years ago. The purpose of our study was to provide an updated description of injury patterns among rhythmic gymnasts in the United States. A retrospective chart review was conducted of 193 rhythmic gymnastics injuries in 79 females, ages 6-20. Patients were seen between January 2010 and March 2020 in a hospital-based pediatric sports medicine clinic. Gymnast demographics, injury locations, and injury types were collected as available. Descriptive and bivariate statistical analysis was performed using general linear mixed models. Our cohort had a mean age of 14.61 2.61 years. Overuse injuries (76.7%) were more common than acute injuries (23.3%). The most common injury types were strain (20.7%), nonspecific pain (15.5%), and tendinitis/tenosynovitis (10.36%). The most frequently injured body regions were lower extremity (75.1%), followed by trunk/back (19.2%), upper extremity (4.7%), and head/neck (1.0%). The most common injured body parts were foot (24.9%), ankle (15.5%), knee (15.0%), lower back (14.0%), and hip (13.0%). General linear mixed models revealed that older age (p = 0.001) and higher competitive level (p = 0.016) were associated with a greater number of diagnoses. Gymnasts with foot injuries were older than gymnasts with ankle (p = 0.026), hip (p