Patterns of injuries in college athletes: A retrospective study of injuries sustained in intercollegiate athletics in two colleges over a two-year period

A retrospective study of sports related injuries incurred at two New York City Colleges and referred to The Mount Sinai Hospital Sports Medicine Program (MSH-SMP) over the past two years was undertaken. During the study, 1,142 students participated in twenty-two sports and sustained one-hundred and seven injuries, an injury rate of 9% per year. Contact sports, notably wrestling, male basketball and soccer, had an injury rate twice that of noncontact sports, notably golf, softball, male swimming, tennis and volleyball. An exception was female gymnastics, which presented with the highest injury rate of all teams. Sprains (28%) and strains (19%) were the most common injuries. Nearly one half the injuries involved the lower extremity, with the knee (24%) and ankle (15%), the anatomic sites most often involved. Of the one-hundred and seven injuries, 48% were seen at The Mount Sinai Hospital Sports Medicine Program for evaluation and treatment. Injury data for the referred population closely approximated that found for the total injured population as a whole.