Review of the literature on sports related clavicle fractures and analysis on the biomechanics of lesion

SummaryThere are many injuries associated with the practice of martial arts.There is a growing population of people who practice various forms of martial arts on a daily basis with improper or insufficient supervision making them prone to execute the techniques in an erroneous manner subsequently leading to injury. Fracture of the clavicle during Hapkido training has been associated directly to incorrect execution of basic techniques.During 1998-2000 twelve black belt level Hapkido athletes were reported to present mid clavicle fractures of the right limb directly associated to the erroneous execution of specific basic Hapkido maneuvers. The erroneous techniques where reproduced with healthy trained athletes under a controlled environment to analyze the error in their execution and the biomechanics correlating to the fracture of the clavicle.All the patients were diagnosed with Allman group Ib/ Robinson type 2 fracture of the dominant limb clavicle, directly associated with incorrect execution of the break falling and roll techniques. These when analyzed reproduced very accurately two distinct models of the biomechanics in the pathology of mid clavicle fractures.The two techniques described are practiced in various other styles of martial arts including Judo. These techniques serve as a precise illustration of two biomechanical models used when describing the forces that produce mid clavicle fractures. The analysis of the various techniques incorrectly done, leading to the fracture of the clavicle, represents in vivo mathematical models explaining the mechanisms of lesion. The major risk factors for injury are improper supervision and/or coaching as well as incorrect level of training of the techniques executed.