A Prospective Cohort Study of Collegiate Fencing Injuries

Abstract

Data with respect to collegiate fencing injuries are very limited. We performed a prospective cohort study of a college fencing team to analyze the rates and types of injuries that occurred to this team over the course of a year. We noted that the injury rate was low, with 2.43 injuries per 1000 athlete exposures. We also noted that 75% of those injured had a time loss of less than 2 wk. A large percentage of our injuries (88%) were musculoskeletal in nature. There were equal numbers of acute and chronic injuries. Men and women had a similar rate of injury. In our study population, we noted that most of the injuries occurred in practice over competition (87.5% vs 12.5%, respectively). We compared the data from a small subset population with the current evidence published with respect to fencing injuries. We noted some similarities and also some differences when comparing certain populations.