Stingers and Transient Paresis

Sporting events comprise the fourth most common cause of spinal cord injury, after motor vehicle accidents, violence, and falls. Additionally, sports injuries comprise the second most common cause of spinal cord injury in the first 3 decades of life, and 7% of all new cases of spinal cord injury are related to athletic activities. In the United States, football is one of the most popular sports, with more than 1.2 million high school participants during the 2001 to 2002 academic year. Approximately 200,000 individuals engage in college and professional play each year. Unfortunately, football is associated with the highest number of direct catastrophic injuries for any sport reported to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research (NCCSIR), and it is also associated with a significant number of stingers or brachial plexus injuries. Other sports that have been implicated in spinal cord injuries include ice hockey, wrestling, diving, skiing, snowboarding, rugby, cheerleading, and baseball.

The NCCSIR characterizes catastrophic sports injury as “any severe spinal, spinal cord, or cerebral injury incurred during participation in a school/college sponsored sport,” and these injuries are further subdivided into direct or indirect. Direct injuries result from participation in the sport, such as trauma from a collision or impact, whereas indirect injuries arise from failure from exertion, such as heat stroke or arrhythmia. Indirect injuries are characterized by medical issues, which include cardiopulmonary diseases such as arrhythmias and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Concussions are currently not classified as catastrophic injuries by the NCCSIR, but they can cause lifelong disability.