Rugby research: The majority of rugby players who had to be treated at the national spinal injuries unit over the past decade sustained their injuries not in scrums but in tackles on the pitch, new research has found.
A team of doctors who reviewed the database of all those who had to be treated at the unit, located at Dublin's Mater Hospital, between January 1995 and December 2004 found 22 patients were admitted with injuries sustained while playing rugby over that period.
All were male and ranged in age from 15 to 44 years.
All 22 required surgery, 21 of them for injuries in the neck region and one for an injury in the lower back area.
The research team included Dr Martin Shelly, now a lecturer in trauma and orthopaedic surgery at Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital, but who previously worked at the Mater's spinal injuries unit. He said 12 of the 22 players had a "neurological deficit" or signs of paralysis when admitted but after treatment just eight ended up with paralysis, leaving them permanently disabled. This represented less than one player a year over the period under review, which was similar to or even lower than the rate found in other countries.
Seven of the eight are now quadriplegic and one is paraplegic.
Dr Shelly said most people would assume spinal injuries in rugby players happened when they were involved in scrums and, while this was true for Australia and Argentina, this study found this not to be the case in the Republic. Neither was it the case in South Africa.
"We found the back line players are the ones most commonly injured. This means it is in the tackle situation that they get injured," he said. "Sometimes it's got to do with pure bad luck in landing awkwardly or it's down to the tackling technique," he added.
Dr Shelly said the research team interviewed all 22 players about their position on the pitch and whether they thought the injury they received was preventable. The vast majority said no.
All but one of the 22 were amateur players. The professional who had to be treated sustained relatively minor injuries.
Furthermore, the majority of those injured were adults. "It was thought that schoolboys would be more prone to injuries but we found adults get injured more frequently," he said. Of the eight who ended up permanently disabled, two were under 18 years.
Their injuries were "devastating" and put a huge financial burden on the health service and had a major impact on the lives of those who sustained them, he said.
Dr Shelly stressed it was important to remember there were over 90,000 players registered with the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and less than one player was being permanently disabled from injuries sustained on the rugby pitch every year.
"Rule changes have made a difference but unfortunately these things [ injuries] happen at a fairly predictable rate of almost one a year," he said.
The study, Spinal Injuries in Irish Rugby - a 10 Year Review, will be presented at the 30th Sir Peter Freyer Memorial Lecture and Surgical Symposium in Galway next month. Apart from Dr Shelly, other doctors involved in the research included Dr Marcus Timlin, senior specialist registrar in trauma and orthopaedic surgery at Cork University Hospital; Mr Ashley Poynton, spinal surgeon at the Mater Hospital; and Prof John O'Byrne, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Cappagh Hospital.