INTRODUCTION
Facial trauma amongst athletes in major sports has been well-documented in the United States. Participation in sports has been attributed to 3-29% of all facial trauma and between 10-42% of all facial fractures each year.1 Among baseball, soccer, and hockey players, facial injuries described as lacerations, contusions, and fractures were the most common presentations.2-4Despite the well-documented incidence of sports-related facial trauma, volleyball trauma has little comparable studies while an estimated 500 million people play volleyball globally.5
Volleyball is one of the most popular sports among adolescents and young adults in the United States. In high school participants, volleyball is the second most popular sport for women with 452,808 players.6 Volleyball also ranks as the fifth most common sport among female athletes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), with 17,780 players, behind outdoor and indoor track, soccer, and softball (Student-athlete participation). Although men’s volleyball has low participation relative to other NCAA sports, the sport has doubled in active athletes since the 2000/2001 season.7 With the popularity of women’s volleyball and the rapid growth of men’s volleyball, the prevalence of volleyball-related injuries is likely to rise.
Despite volleyball rules that limit player contact, concussions are still common.8,9 This is largely due to ball-contact related injuries that account for approximately 10% of volleyball-related injuries and 31% of ball-contact injuries were located on the head or face.10 Head and facial traumas make up a low proportion of overall volleyball-related injuries.11,12
Several studies have investigated volleyball-associated injuries, however, most studies are designed toward subpopulations such as pediatric,13,14 NCAA athletes,8,15or professional athlete16 populations. Further, these studies often focus on non-facial injuries, such as upper17 and lower18 extremities or back.19 There has not been a comprehensive study analyzing volleyball-associated craniofacial traumatic injuries in the general adult population. This study aims to describe volleyball-associated craniofacial traumatic injuries presenting to emergency departments (ED) in the United States by patient demographics, type, anatomical location, and disposition.