Traumatic injuries to padel : what do we risk?

General practitioner expert in sports, Pierre-Olivier Ferrand enlightens us today on the pathologies specific to padel, a subject he studied in his thesis.

The traumatic pathologies of the football player padel could be grouped into subgroups according to the location of the injuries: head and neck, trunk, upper limbs, lower limbs and finally injuries with undetermined location.

Analysis of the data from a detailed questionnaire reveals numerous imprecise injuries such as wounds, hematomas, skin burns or even tendinopathies. However, the study allowed for more accurate and rather unexpected injury analysis.

673 wounds under magnifying glass

The study allowed us to highlight 55 different traumatic pathologies for a total of 673 injuries taken into account:

• 9 pathologies localized to the head and neck
• 5 pathologies localized to the trunk
• 13 pathologies localized to the upper limbs
• 23 pathologies localized to the lower limbs
• 5 pathologies with undetermined location

The tables below therefore group together all the traumatic pathologies identified by the questionnaire, grouped according to the part of the body affected. Where possible, ICD-10 coding (International Classification of Diseases, 10^e revision) has been associated with pathology. Finally, each injury is associated with the structure or structures that caused it (Table 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7).

Pierre-Olivier Ferrand, general practitioner trained in sports pathologies and manual medicine, details THE TRAUMATIC PATHOLOGIES OF THE PLAYER PADEL as part of his thesis which you can find in full HERE.

1. Pathologies of the lower limb

The lower limb is the location where the greatest diversity of injuries has been reported. All the joints are affected, from the hip to the midfoot joints, even if the coxo-femoral joint remains very little affected by the pathologies with a simple inflammation described. For their part, the subpelvic muscles and the triceps surae are affected by classic pathologies such as simple muscle tears or contractures.

The knee joint presents singular traumatological mechanisms. In addition to meniscal lesions related to the surface of the field, there are sprains of the knee with all the structures of the field, except the ball and the racket. padel. There is also a partial rupture of the posterior cruciate ligament of the knee related to trauma against the net and its posts.

Sprains following shocks

Finally, the foot is the site of multiple and varied injuries. Indeed, the study allows us to highlight many tendon and ligament pathologies. We can emphasize the existence of Achilles tendinopathies and plantar aponeurosis evolving until the rupture of these structures. Ankle sprains, with ligament tearing sometimes, could be caused by the windows, the surface of the field or the ball.

In the context of pathologies of the lower limb, we notice that they are mainly caused by the surface of the ground. However, the windows and the other player are also providers of pathologies. The net and the posts are not very traumatic for these parts of the body but remain dangerous, as evidenced by the sprains of the knee and the partial rupture of the posterior cruciate ligament noted.

2. Pathologies of the upper limb

The upper limb is also the site of many traumatic pathologies.

There are some classic injuries such as tendinopathy of the wrist, elbow or forearm. However, there are many more unusual pathologies in racquet sports. The structures delimiting the ground are thus the origin of bruises, sprains of the fingers and the wrist, which can even go as far as fractures.

The surface of the pitch is less involved than for the lower limb, replaced by the structures on which the player can lean or come into collision with the upper body. Windows are probably the cause of acromioclavicular sprains by direct contact between the shoulder and the window. The grids are providers of bruises of the wrist and fingers but also digital wounds. The net and the posts are responsible for elbow dislocations and fractures, mainly indirectly by causing the player to fall from padel. Finally, the ball is not the source of pathology, but the racket is through tendinopathies but also through direct trauma causing sprains and bruises.

3. Head and neck pathologies

Head and neck pathologies are less diverse than lower and upper limb pathologies. However, some remain unique and, to say the least, unusual for a racket sport.

There are numerous cervical and cranio-facial traumas. Although imprecise in the lesion mechanism, they underline the risks represented at this level by all the structures surrounding the football player. padel.

Watch out for windows and snowshoes

Among the components of the face, the injuries observed are more precise. There are traumatic lesions of the eye and orbit going as far as retinal hemorrhage. On the lower level of the face, the oral region is not spared with traumatic lesions of the lips and oral cavity, maxillary hematomas and even a dental fracture.

We note that windows, rackets and balls are the structures with the most pronounced role in the appearance of these pathologies.

4. Pathologies of the trunk

The trunk is the part of the body where the least traumatic pathologies have been identified. Only five different pathologies are identified. Low back pain and gluteal hematomas appeared in connection with the surface of the field, dorsal muscle contractures with the windows.

There are rib fractures with the glass and testicular trauma related to the ball of padel.

5. Pathologies with undetermined location

The questionnaire revealed pathologies of imprecise location and indeterminable severity through this questionnaire. There are therefore wounds, hematomas and superficial skin burns, caused by the majority of the structures of the ground of padel.

Tendinopathies would have been caused by the grids and the surface of the pitch, with, however, an injury mechanism that seems inconsistent.

Finally, some fractures were caused by the racket and the players of padel surrounding areas.

Although these pathologies are most often benign, their frequency highlights the player's immediate proximity to padel with its environment as well as the number of traumas that these athletes can suffer.

6. Distribution of traumatic pathologies

The responses to the questionnaire collected made it possible to identify 673 injuries. This number includes all the pathologies expressed in the questionnaires, some people having expressed multiple pathologies.

The table below summarizes this data and allows the analysis of the number of injuries in relation to each element of the field (Table 8)

Thus, the land surface of padel is the element with which the most players have suffered a traumatic pathology: 197 injuries or 29,27% ​​of pathologies. It is also the most traumatogenic element of the environment in men (30,4% of male injuries), while the other player is the category causing the least injuries (3,6%).

On the women's side, the analysis of the questionnaire does not show any injury with the net and the posts, whereas it is the racket of padel which resulted in the most incidents (28,9%).

We performed a comparative analysis between the female and male groups using the chi2 test.

This analysis highlights a statistically significant difference between the number of men and women who suffered an injury with the net and the posts (p=0,0005). It would therefore seem that this part of the field is more prone to trauma in men rather than in women.

There is also a statistical difference (p=0,018) in the racket category that points to more frequent injuries in women than in men.

The analyzes carried out with the other structures did not find any significant difference. These results would therefore direct us towards an equivalent number of injured athletes between men and women.

As impressive as they are, these data certainly do not mean that the padel is a sport where you get hurt all the time. Many other sports are sources of trauma, sometimes more serious. The important thing is to know the risks and to have suitable physical preparation to prevent them as best as possible. And the main thing is that the balance between the many benefits of a sport and its few inconveniences leans in the right direction.

Pierre-Olivier Ferrand

Passionate about tennis from an early age, Pierre-Olivier discovered a passion for padel in 2018. General practitioner trained in sports pathologies and manual medicine, he juggles between snowshoes and stethoscope for his greatest pleasure.

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