Hand and wrist injuries

Prospective surveillance of hand and wrist injuries in an elite amateur boxing squad, with hand injuries counted in bare-knuckle and MMA studies.

Research information, not medical advice. This page does not diagnose, screen or clear anyone to compete.

The library holds one study focused on the hand and wrist. It followed the Great Britain amateur boxing squad for eight years. Two other sources count hand injuries among all injuries recorded at events.

What the sources report

  1. Hand and wrist injuries in elite boxing

    Loosemore et al., 2017. Hand.

    Article type
    Prospective injury surveillance
    Studied
    Great Britain Olympic boxing squad, 2005–2012.
    Status
    Published in a peer-reviewed journal
    • The team doctor and physiotherapist recorded injuries in the Great Britain amateur boxing squad from 2005 to 2012.
    • Finger carpometacarpal instability and extensor hood and capsule sprain of the knuckle joint, known as boxer's knuckle, were more common than other hand and wrist diagnoses.
    • The hand and wrist injury rate was 347 per 1,000 hours in competition and under 0.5 per 1,000 hours in training.

    Full recordDOI 10.1177/1558944716642756

  2. Epidemiology of professional bare-knuckle fighting injuries

    Muzzi et al., 2022. The Physician and Sportsmedicine.

    Article type
    Observational injury surveillance
    Studied
    141 sanctioned bare-knuckle bouts; 282 fighter exposures.
    Status
    Published in a peer-reviewed journal

    This study recorded 8 hand fractures and 5 superficial hand lacerations among 282 fighter exposures.

    • 141 state-sanctioned professional bare-knuckle bouts held from June 2018 to November 2020 were observed. Of 282 fighters, 105 (36.6%) sustained at least one injury.
    • Lacerations were the most common injury: 98 were recorded, 80 of them facial. 17 fractures were recorded, including 8 hand fractures.

    Full recordDOI 10.1080/00913847.2021.1955604

  3. The epidemiology of injuries in mixed martial arts

    Lystad et al., 2014. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine.

    Article type
    Systematic review and meta-analysis
    Studied
    Six MMA injury epidemiology studies.
    Status
    Published in a peer-reviewed journal

    In the six MMA studies in this review, the wrist and hand accounted for 6.0% to 12.0% of recorded injuries.

    • Six studies were included. The pooled injury incidence was 228.7 per 1,000 athlete-exposures (95% CI 110.4 to 473.5).
    • The head was the most commonly injured region (66.8% to 78.0% of injuries), followed by the wrist and hand (6.0% to 12.0%). Lacerations, fractures and concussions were the most frequent injury types.

    Full recordDOI 10.1177/2325967113518492

Limits of this evidence

  • The surveillance study covers one national squad of elite amateur boxers. Its results may not carry over to professional or recreational boxers.
  • The training injury rate in that study is an estimate.
  • Event-based studies count injuries seen on the night. Injuries that show up later are not included.

Fight Medicine Research Institute checked each source’s details against PubMed, Crossref, Europe PMC or the publisher. It has not carried out a formal critical appraisal of each paper.