In my ongoing effort to document safety studies addressing combat sports, a recent study was published this month in the Saudi Journal of Sports Medicine seeking to find out the prevalence of injuries in national level boxers that occurred during the bout or training.
In the study, titled Prevalence of injuries in competitive boxers: A retrospective study, fifty-four national level male boxers were asked to report their injuries occurred in last 2 years, i.e., from August 2013 to July 2015. Only active competitive boxers were recruited.
The results indicated that the boxers suffered 7.59 injuries/year on an average while training or competing. Head and facial injuries were the most frequent and 61% of the participants reported concussive injury in the two year span.
With respect to concussion rate the study noted as follows –
The common injury in head and face region was lip laceration. 81.48% of boxers had lip lacerations. Nasal bone contusion (61.12%), gingival bleeding (61.12%), and cerebral concussion (61.12%) are the second most common injuries in head and face region. In this study, head and face region is the most common site of injury which may be because of: Absence of head guard, different technique of training, the weight of the handcuff, and high-intensity stroke. Cerebral concussion may occur because of violent blow to the head, neck, or upper body which causes the brain to slide forcefully against the inner wall of the skull. Contusions usually occur on the skin as a result of trauma causing rupture of capillaries. Analysis of the database suggests that 10% of the total injuries were around the eye region
Combat Sports Law 