title: Preparticipation Evaluation for Climbing Sports.
abstract: Climbing is a popular wilderness sport among a wide variety of professional athletes and amateur enthusiasts, and many styles are performed across many environments. Potential risks confront climbers, including personal health or exacerbation of a chronic condition, in addition to climbing-specific risks or injuries. Although it is not common to perform a preparticipation evaluation (PPE) for climbing, a climber or a guide agency may request such an evaluation before participation. Formats from traditional sports PPEs can be drawn upon, but often do not directly apply. The purpose of this article was to incorporate findings from expert opinion from professional societies in wilderness medicine and in sports medicine, with findings from the literature of both climbing epidemiology and traditional sports PPEs, into a general PPE that would be sufficient for the broad sport of climbing. The emphasis is on low altitude climbing, and an overview of different climbing styles is included. Knowledge of climbing morbidity and mortality, and a standardized approach to the PPE that involves adequate history taking and counseling have the potential for achieving risk reduction and will facilitate further study on the evaluation of the efficacy of PPEs.
authors.affiliation: Family and Sports Medicine, University of Utah Health Care, Salt Lake City, Utah (Dr Campbell). Electronic address: aaroncampbell100@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Aaron D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine (Drs Davis and Cushing).
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Colorado (Dr Paterson).
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Paterson
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine (Drs Davis and Cushing).
authors.forename: Tracy A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Cushing
authors.affiliation: Division of Emergency Medicine, University of Utah Health Care, Salt Lake City, Utah (Drs Ng and McIntosh).
authors.forename: Pearlly
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.affiliation: Arizona Sports Medicine Center, Mesa, Arizona (Dr Peterson).
authors.forename: Charles S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.affiliation: Central Maine Sports Medicine (a Clinical Division of CMMC), Evergreen Sports Medicine Fellowship, Lewiston, Maine (Dr Sedgwick).
authors.forename: Peter E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Sedgwick
authors.affiliation: Division of Emergency Medicine, University of Utah Health Care, Salt Lake City, Utah (Drs Ng and McIntosh).
authors.forename: Scott E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: McIntosh
mesh_terms: D056352:Athletes; D006801:Humans; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000379:methods*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012955:Societies, Medical; D013177:Sports / Q000502:physiology; D013178:Sports Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D064132:Sports Nutritional Sciences; D055814:Wilderness; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*
keywords: climbing; mountaineering; preparticipation examination; preparticipation physical evaluation; wilderness sports