Common injuries in volleyball. Mechanisms of injury, prevention and rehabilitation.
Volleyball has become an extremely popular participation sport worldwide. Fortunately, the incidence of serious injury is relatively low. The sport-specific activity most commonly associated with injury is blocking. Ankle sprains are the most common acute injury. Recurrent sprains may be less likely to occur if an ankle orthosis is worn. Patellar tendinitis represents the most common overuse injury, although shoulder tendinitis secondary to the overhead activities of spiking and serving is also commonly seen. An unusual shoulder injury involving the distal branch of the suprascapular nerve which innervates the infraspinatus muscle has been increasingly described in volleyball players in recent years. Hand injuries, usually occurring while blocking, are the next most common group of injuries. Fortunately, severe knee ligament injuries are rare in volleyball. However, anterior crutiate ligament injury is more likely to occur in female players. Many of these injuries may be preventable with close attention to technique in sport-specific skills and some fairly simple preventive interventions.