title: Neck and spine injuries in Canadian cheerleaders: An increasing trend.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Cheerleading, now increasingly practiced in Canada, has a high propensity to cause traumatic neck and spine injuries. We aimed to evaluate the importance of neck and spine injuries in the practice of cheerleading and their occurrence mechanisms in order to propose preventive measures.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective cohort study of cheerleading injuries extracted from the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program database between 1990 and 2010 was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, there were 1496 cases of injuries documented secondary to cheerleading (median age 15, 4 (IQR=2, 2) years; 1410 women (94%)). Of those, 125 cases (8%) were neck and spine injuries. The most frequent injury was a sprain/strain (47%). More severe injuries included fractures (4%), muscle or tendon injury (3%), dislocation (1%), and nerve injury (1%). Over half of these injuries were caused by either falling from (26%) or basing/spotting a stunt from height (26%). Other mechanisms include being thrown/falling from a high toss (10%) and falling from a pyramid (8%). Of the 125 cases, 3 (2, 4%) were admitted to hospital.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most neck and spine injuries were related to stunts. Although the proportion of serious injury is low, the increasing trend for the practice of cheerleading calls for preventive measures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hardy
authors.affiliation: Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McFaull
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Electronic address: dickens_saint-vil@ssss.gouv.qc.ca.
authors.forename: Dickens
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Saint-Vil
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009017:Morbidity / Q000639:trends; D019838:Neck Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013124:Spinal Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cheerleading; Neck; Spine; Traumatic injury