Background:
Upper extremity injuries are common in wrestling, most of which do not require surgery.
Methods:
We retrospectively documented the case histories of six elite wrestlers who sustained elbow injuries that required surgical treatment, three of which involved reinjury and another surgical procedure.
Results:
All but one of the six initial injuries were associated with a defensive maneuver. Reinjury was more common for freestyle wrestling than for Greco-Roman style. The average time between the initial elbow injury and surgical intervention was 22 months. One-half of the wrestlers with elbow injuries that required surgery were reinjured and underwent revision surgery.
Conclusions:
All of the elite wrestlers waited for a long period of time before receiving surgery for the initial injury, and the reinjury rate was high.
