Acute Sports Injuries - NEUROPRAXIA

Major acute nerve injuries are unusual in athletes. Specific nerves are susceptible to compression injury due to their subcutaneous location, including the ulnar nerve at the elbow and common peroneal nerve at the neck of the fibula. Similarly, some nerves are vulnerable to being co-injured with other tissues, such as axillary nerve injury during shoulder dislocation and radial nerve injury with humeral shaft fracture.

The most common acute nerve injury in athletes is a 'stinger' or 'burner'. This results from an overstretching injury to the brachial plexus that conveys the nerve supply to the arm. Overstretching can happen when the head is forcibly bent away from the shoulder whilst the shoulder is simultaneously depressed. This can occur when the athlete is driven into the playing surface during a high-contact sport such as ice hockey, rugby or wrestling.

Symptoms include a stinging or burning sensation that spreads from the shoulder to the hand. This may be associated with numbness in the sensory distribution of the nerves involved. The paraesthesia is often temporary, disappearing in minutes. However, more serious injuries can result in longer lasting symptoms involving the loss of both sensory and motor function due to blockage of nerve conduction. The later type of injury, known as 'neuropraxia' usually resolves spontaneously but slowly.

REFERENCES Brukner, P., 2012. Brukner & Khan's clinical sports medicine. North Ryde: McGraw-Hill.