What sport are you most likely to suffer a spinal cord injury in?

A recent study has been completed in China considering the trends for spinal cord injury in sport.

There were 2,448 spinal cord injury cases reviewed. Of these 164 were caused by sport and recreation-related accidents. The patients were admitted to hospital between January 2013 and December 2019.

Perhaps surprisingly, the sports with the highest number of spinal cord injuries were dancing, water sports, and taekwondo. From those who suffered from a spinal cord injury as a result of dancing, 27.1% had an incomplete injury and 72.9% had a complete injury. The study also concluded that individuals with a dance-related spinal cord injury had a poor prognosis with patients graded as A and D according to the American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale showed no significant improvement in their neurological function.

In the UK, based on my experience, spinal cord injury causes vary but the most frequent causes tend to be road traffic incidents, incidents at work such as falls from height, assaults, and occasionally high velocity contact sports.

Unfortunately, with incidents at work, there are occasionally difficulties with employers failing to take out insurance, despite it being a legal requirement to do so. 

There can also occasionally be problems with the case value exceeding the limit of indemnity (the limit of the insurance policy). The minimum is £5million, however, with the cost of care increasing, the general inflationary environment, and the negative discount rate, the cost of spinal cord injury cases is also increasing.

Find out more about Irwin Mitchell's expertise in supporting people following a spinal injury at our dedicated spinal cord injury claims section.  

The etiology of sports-related SCI in China has changed dramatically, with dancing replacing water sports as the primary cause of SCIs.”