Volleyball Shoulder Hazard Uncovered

A Dutch study of professional volleyball players has found that 25% have symptoms associated with a shoulder artery injury that could cause irreversible damage to their fingers.

In a paper in the August issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine Mario Maas, M.D., senior author of the study and a radiologist at the University of Amsterdam Academic Medical Center, explained that he and his colleagues became concerned when six volleyball players “with ischemic digits and small microemboli in the digital arteries of the dominant hand” visited their hospital in a three-month span.

“These complaints were caused by an aneurysmatic dilation of the posterior circumflex humeral artery (PCHA) with distal occlusion and digital emboli in the isolateral limb, ” Maas wrote, adding that all of the patients were “elite male volleyball players active in the national top league.”

According to Reuter’s reporter, Kerry Grens in a September 7 article, those six patients inspired Maas and his colleagues to conduct a survey of nearly 100 players to see how many of them had warning signs associated with the same injury. Those symptoms include experiencing cold, blue-colored, or pale fingers during or immediately following a volleyball game.

Twenty-seven percent of the 99 male players surveyed said that they had experienced those symptoms, Grens said. Twenty-seven of them said they had experienced cold fingers during play, while 18 of them said that their digits had turned blue and 20 others said their fingers had become pale. Four participants said that they often had blue or pale fingers, and eight said that their fingers regularly became cold.

“The group is doing follow-up research to see how well their survey actually identifies people with blood clots caused by a vascular problem, ” Grens said. “Their report urges doctors, especially those treating elite athletes, to actively screen for the signs of potential vascular injuries.”