Standards and interdisciplinary treatment of boxing injuries of the head in professional boxing on the basis of an IBF World Championship Fight.
BACKGROUND
Boxing injuries are well known in hobby boxing as well as in professional boxing. Especially in professional boxing it is of great importance to implement and follow prevention-, diagnosis- and therapy-standards in order to prevent or at least to minimize injuries of the athlete. The utmost aim would be to establish international prevention-, diagnosis- and therapy-standards for boxing injuries in professional boxing. However, this aim is on a short run unrealistic, as there are too many different professional boxing organisations with different regulations. A realistic short term aim would be to develop a national standard in order to unify the management and medical treatment of boxing injuries in professional boxing.


METHODS
We present the management and interdisciplinary treatment of a professional boxer with a bilateral open fracture of the mandible during a middle weight IBF World Championship Fight. On the basis of this case we want to present and discuss the possibilities of an interdisciplinary and successful medical treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
In order to prevent or minimize boxing injuries of professional boxers, annual MRI-Scans of the head and neck have to be performed as prevention standard. Furthermore, neurocognitive tests must be performed on a regular basis. Boxing injuries in professional boxing need an interdisciplinary, unbiased and complex analysis directly at the boxing ring. The treatment of the injuries should be only performed in medical centres and thus under constant parameters. The needed qualifications must be learned in mandatory national licence courses of boxing physicians, referees and promoters.
Department of Plastic and Hand Surgery, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Medical Center, Erlangen, Germany. adrian.dragu@uk-erlangen.de
Adrian
A
Dragu
Frank
F
Unglaub
Sinisa
S
Radomirovic
Stefan
S
Schnürer
Walter
W
Wagner
Raymund E
RE
Horch
Berthold
B
Hell
D056352:Athletes; D001914:Boxing / Q000293:injuries* / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008337:Mandibular Fractures / Q000601:surgery*; D009984:Orthopedic Fixation Devices; D019637:Orthopedic Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D010348:Patient Care Team; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*