Journal List > Korean J Sports Med > v.35(3) > 1054590

TOOLS
Yi, Kwon, Lee, Yang, Ahn, Im, Cho, and Park: Humeral Shaft Fracture Sustained during Arm Wrestling in Young Males
Clinical Article
Clinical Sports Medicine

The Korean Journal of Sports Medicine 2017; 35(3): 149-154.

Published online: 7 December 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5763/kjsm.2017.35.3.149

Humeral Shaft Fracture Sustained during Arm Wrestling in Young Males

Seung Rim Yi*, Jieun Kwon*, Ye Hyun Lee, Bo Kyu Yang, Young Joon Ahn, Se Hyuk Im, Joon Hee Cho, Sang Hoon Park

Department of Orthopedic Surgery, National Police Hospital, Seoul, Korea.

Correspondence: Ye Hyun Lee. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, National Police Hospital, 123 Songi-ro, Songpa-gu, Seoul 05715, Korea. Tel: +82-2-3400-1243, Fax: +82-2-3400-1249, oslyh@police.go.kr

Equal contributor:

*Seung Rim Yi and Jieun Kwon contributed equally to this study as first authors.

Received 10 May 2017       Revised 30 August 2017       Accepted 27 September 2017

Copyright © 2017 The Korean Society of Sports Medicine

The Korean Society of Sports Medicine

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Humeral shaft fracture sustaining arm wrestling is rare, but occurs intermittently. We treated 15 cases of humeral shaft spiral fractures occurred during arm wrestling for fun since 2007. Average age was 22.47±2.69 years, average body mass index was 22.67±2.06 kg/m2. There was no prominent tendency for the fractures to occur at a certain phase of the match. Fractured level and length of each case were measured in the plain radiographs and compared with those of previous reports. Eight cases (53.3%) had an associating medial butterfly fragment, and the time taken until the fracture occurred was longer than that of simple spiral fracture (15.62±9.03 seconds vs. 7.85±2.67 seconds, p=0.048). Fractures were distributed mid to distal one third of humerus, the length of fracture was 7.93±2.69 cm and involved 25.43%±8.24% of humeral length. All cases except one treated surgically using plate and screws and returned their full activities within postoperative 3 months. Although arm wrestling is a simple and joyful sport, participants should be aware of the risks of injury during arm wrestling, especially for the amateur players.

Keywords: Arm wrestling, Etiology, Humeral fracture, Young male

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

Typical type of fracture caused by arm wrestling is the external rotation type spiral fracture with (A) or without (B) a medial butterfly fragment.

kjsm-35-149-g001
Fig. 2

The site and the average length of fractures. Most fractures occurred in the mid to lower one-third of the humerus and eight out of 15 cases had butterfly fragments.

kjsm-35-149-g002
Table 1

Demography of cases

kjsm-35-149-i001

BMI: body mass index, R: right, L: left.

Table 2

Comparison between fractures with and without butterfly fragment

kjsm-35-149-i002

Values are presented as mean±standard deviation.

Group A: group of fractures with butterfly fragment, Group B: group of fractures without butterfly fragment, BMI: body mass index.

*Statistically significant.

Notes

Conflict of Interest No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

References

1. Biondi J, Bear TF. Isolated rupture of the subscapularis tendon in an arm wrestler. Orthopedics. 1988; 11:647–649.
2. Pratt DA, Tennent TD. Proximal biceps rupture: management of an unusual injury in an arm wrestler. Br J Sports Med. 2007; 41:459.
3. Moon MS, Moon YW, Sihn JC, Kim SS. Arm-wrestler's injury: a report of thirteen cases. J Orthop Surg. 1997; 5:29–34.
4. Ogawa K, Ui M. Humeral shaft fracture sustained during arm wrestling: report on 30 cases and review of the literature. J Trauma. 1997; 42:243–246.
5. Yoon YH, Ha JK, Choi KE, Lee KH, Shin SJ. The fractures of humerus shaft and medial epicondyle by arm wrestling. J Korean Fract Soc. 2006; 19:437–442.
6. Kruczynski J, Nowicki JJ, Topolinski T, et al. Radiological and biomechanical analysis of humeral fractures occurring during arm wrestling. Med Sci Monit. 2012; 18:CR303–CR307.
7. Korean Agency for Technology and Standard. The 7th national anthropometric survey report. Eumseong: Korean Agency for Technology and Standard;2015.
8. Whitaker JH. Arm wrestling fractures: a humerus twist. Am J Sports Med. 1977; 5:67–77.
9. Silva DC, Silva Z, Sousa Gda C, et al. Electromyographic evaluation of upper limb muscles involved in armwrestling sport simulation during dynamic and static conditions. J Electromyogr Kinesiol. 2009; 19:e448–e457.
10. Pedrazzini A, Pedrazzoni M, De Filippo M, Nicoletto G, Govoni R, Ceccarelli F. Humeral fractures by arm wrestling in adult: a biomechanical study. Acta Biomed. 2012; 83:122–126.
11. Ahcan U, Ales A, Zavrsnik J. Spiral fracture of the humerus caused by arm wrestling. Eur J Trauma. 2000; 26:308–311.
12. Ogawa K, Yoshida A. Throwing fracture of the humeral shaft: an analysis of 90 patients. Am J Sports Med. 1998; 26:242–246.
13. Chao SL, Miller M, Teng SW. A mechanism of spiral fracture of the humerus: a report of 129 cases following the throwing of hand grenades. J Trauma. 1971; 11:602–605.
14. Heilbronner DM, Manoli A 2nd, Morawa LG. Fractures of the humerus in arm wrestlers. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1980; (149):169–171.
TOOLS
Similar articles