Verletzungshäufigkeiten beim Cable-Wakeboard:eine prospektive Studie

Introduction: A wakeboard is an aquatic sports device in the shape of a board to which the wakeboarder is attached with a binding to slide on the surface of the water. The user stands on the board sideways towards the driving direction. At water ski parks the sport cable-wakeboard has become more and more popular over the whole world. The frequency, severity and mechanisms of injury at cable-wakeboarding have not been described yet. There are merely case reports to single injuries. Collecting data of mechanisms and frequency of injuries is the aim of the study. The assumption is that injuries at cablewakeboarding are not significantly higher than injuries at other sports. Methodics: The participants of the study were acquired at wakeboard parks, via email distribution lists, as well as by using internet portals. Regarding our main issue 122 subjects (99m, 23f) prospectively and steadily filled out a standardized online-questionnaire each month in the course of the season of 2008, from May until November. Results: The participants taking part in the study actively performed the sport wakeboard totally adding up to 8.647 hours. For the purpose of wakeboarding the athletes performed at their water park for 2,5 hours on an average per day and 8,4 days per month. 277 injuries were documented, from which 108 (39%) had to be treated medically. The rate of injuries totaled up to 32 injuries per 1.000 h. The rate of injuries that had to undergo treatment by a physician amounted to 12 injuries per 1.000 h. For both medically and non-medically treated injuries knee, shoulder and head injuries dominated with respectively 20%. Distorsions and contusions made up 71% of all injuries. Discussion: There is no greater risk of harming oneself by cable-wakeboarding in comparison to other trend and mass sports even though the frequency of injury for mild, non-medically treated injuries is higher.