Increasing trend in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu injuries presenting to U.S. emergency departments – a 10-year analysis and injury profile

ABSTRACT

Objective

Evaluate injury trends in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) participation by presenting to U.S. emergency departments over a 10-year period and formulate an injury profile.

Methods

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database was queried for martial arts related injuries from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2021. Codes and narratives were examined to compile data for patients sustaining BJJ-related injuries.

Results

From 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2021 there were 7,722 (NE = 282,315) ED-diagnosed martial arts related injuries with 911 (NE = 36,023) BJJ-related injuries identified. Regression analysis demonstrated an increasing trend in the annual incidence of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu injuries presenting to the ED (R2 = 0.934; SE = 2.069: p < .0001). Average age was 25.68 years of age (range 4–83). The most common injury diagnoses were sprains/strains and other/not listed at 27.68% and 26.39%. The most commonly injured body parts were the upper trunk, and the shoulder comprising 13.66% and 12.14% of injured body parts, respectively. The most commonly fractured region was toes, at 14.15% of all fractures. The most common dislocations occurred at the shoulder and knee, at 32.49% and 28.45% of dislocations, respectively. The most common mechanisms of injury specifically identified were indeterminate contact between players, fall onto ground, or fall onto another player comprising 18.62% and 17.17%, of injuries, respectively.

Conclusion

There was an increasing trend of BJJ-related injuries presenting to U.S. Emergency Departments. The most common diagnoses and body parts injured were sprains/strains and upper trunk and shoulder, respectively. The most commonly fractured and dislocated regions were toes and shoulder, respectively. The most common mechanisms of injury were indeterminate contact or falling. This study provides novel information concerning trends in injury and injury profiles for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu related injuries.

KEYWORDS:

• Sports medicine
• emergency medicine
• Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
• orthopedics
• orthopaedics
• martial arts

Disclosure statement

The authors report that there are no competing or conflicts of interests to declare.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) available to the public: https://www.cpsc.gov/Research–Statistics/NEISS-Injury-Data

Geolocation

The United States of America.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.