Citation

McGaughey I, Sullivan P. Injury 2003; 34(11): 842-846.

Affiliation

Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia. ingridmcg@optusnet.com.au

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

14580818

Abstract

Macquarie Island is a small, rugged sub-Antarctic island with a scientific research station and a considerable reputation for knee and ankle injuries amongst the Australian Antarctic Division expeditioner population. In order to examine the accuracy of this reputation, a 10-year retrospective analysis of all knee and ankle injuries recorded by the Macquarie Island Medical Officer in the medical logs was undertaken.Knee and ankle injuries comprised 13% of the 2,678 recorded medical consultations. The majority of initial injuries occurred in the field and almost a third occurred during work related activities. Ankle ligament sprains were the most commonly recorded injury (17%), followed by achilles tendonitis (14%), enthesopathy of the knee (16%), and chondromalacia patellae (10%). Meniscal tears and collateral ligament of the knee sprains contributed a further 11 and 9%, respectively. While there were few significant knee and ankle injuries during this period, around a third of the expeditioners represented to the Medical Officer with recurrent difficulties.