Injuries in water polo.

Abstract

Water polo originated in mid-19th century England and Scotland as an aquatic form of rugby football (1). Players used “pulu,” an inflated, vulcanized rubber ball imported from India, pronounced “polo.” The game became known as water polo and that name has been used ever since. Water polo first appeared in modern Olympics in Paris in 1900, making it the earliest and longest-running Olympic team competition. It has been traditionally dominated by Europeans – Hungary, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Russia, Greece, and Serbia, but in the last decades the popularity of water polo has been constantly growing in the USA, Australia, Canada, and Asia. The modern game of water polo is a unique combination of swimming, throwing, and martial arts. Physiologically, it is extremely demanding, because it is comprised of intense burst activity of less than 15-second duration, followed by lower intensity intervals of less than 20 seconds. Water polo is becoming more physical than ever (2). This results in a number of typical acute traumatic events such as contusions, lacerations, sprains, dislocations, or fractures (3). On the other hand, vigorous training with numerous repetitions of ball throws, swims, or kicks may result in overuse injuries (4). This review covers, in systematical fashion, the most important acute and overuse injuries in water polo by analyzing four different regions of the body: head, spine, upper extremities, and lower extremities.