Neck injury in Rugby Union: incidence, severity, aetiology and prevention

"A systematic review of the literature on neck injury in Rugby Union has uncovered variations in the definition of sports injury and the design of studies which has resulted in our current limited understanding on this subject. There is a paucity of data on the severity of sports injuries and little analytical data to confirm any causal relationship between risk factors and neck injury in Rugby Union. Therefore a prospective cohort study was undertaken to analyse the incidence, severity, aetiology and type of neck injury in amateur men's Rugby Union. In 31140 hours of play (12860 hours of match time and 18280 hours of training) 90 participants (n = 262) sustained neck injury (8 were recurrent). The incidence rate of neck injury was 2.9 injuries / 1000 player-hours (95% CI: 2.3, 3.6). Sixty-nine point three percent of neck injuries were minor, 17% mild, 6.8% moderate and 6.8% severe. Neck compression was the most frequent mechanism of injury and was found to be weakly associated with severity (P = 0.073). Cervical facet injury was the most frequent type of neck injury diagnosis. There was a significant relationship between the incidence of neck injury and pain reported during pre-season screening. A weak association was found between the incidence of neck injury and the players' age, stage of career and previous neck injury. A weak association between the severity of injury and the amount of time spent on pre-season preparation was also present. Based on these findings preventative strategies have been proposed and recommendations for future studies stated." -- Summary.