Citation

Green J, Zuckerman SL, Dalton SL, Djoko A, Folger D, Kerr ZY. Res. Sports Med. 2016; 25(1): 26-36.

Affiliation

Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention , Indianapolis , IN , USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15438627.2016.1258642

PMID

27873542

Abstract

[Stingers (also termed burners) are common injuries in contact or collision sports. A burner or a stinger is an injury to the nerve supply of the upper arm, either at the neck or shoulder. The injury is named for the stinging or burning pain that spreads from the shoulder to the hand.]

This study describes the epidemiology of "stinger" injuries in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men's Football. About 57 NCAA Men's Football programmes provided 153 team-seasons of injury data to the NCAA Injury Surveillance Programme (NCAA-ISP) during the 2009/2010-2014/2015 academic years. In the study period, 229 "stingers" were reported for an injury rate of 2.04/10,000 athlete-exposures (AE). Most "stingers" were reported during competitions (55.5%) and the preseason (80.3%) and resulted in time loss less than 24 hours (63.8%). One in five (18.8%) were recurrent. Most "stingers" were due to player contact (93.0%), particularly while tackling (36.7%) and blocking (25.8%) and occurred to defensive ends/linebackers (25.8%) and offensive linemen (23.6%). Although previous research reports a large prevalence of "stingers" among football players, the NCAA-ISP reported a relatively low injury rate. The transient nature of pain associated with "stingers" may have contributed to under-reporting, highlighting the need to deduce manners to increase reporting.

Language: en