Medical aspects of competitive diving

a review of literature

By Wes Zimmermann, M.D.specialist in sportsmedicine and occupational medicineAmersfoort, The Netherlands

April 2008, FINA, Manchester15 minutes

Medical aspects of springboard diving

Medical aspects of springboard diving

Medical aspects of springboard diving

a review of literature

1. finding (medical) literature

2. a private collection

3. what is in the literature?

4. what is missing in the literature?

5. summary and invitation

1. Finding (medical) literature

• Evidence based method:• www.pubmed.gov• sportdiscus (Canada)• universities (masters and phD theses)

• Collectors method:• Internet: google• sport specific magazines (inside USA diving)• conference reports• colleagues

2 a private collection

www.springschool.nl

Articles (2000) Books (500) unpublished papers (750)

directly related to diving

Part 1: what is in the literature?

Types of articles (250 items):

case reports: one patient with a rare injury clinical reports: several patients with a similar injury epidemiology: the number of injuries in a group original research: results of experiments (new evidence) reviews: a summary of articles by other

authors (no new facts)

language: English (90%), German, other.

3 what is in the literature?

Areas of concern in diving:

lower back (Groher 1969-1979, Baranto 2006)vestibular (Krejcova 1981, Novotny 1982)nutrition (Gess 1985, Abernethy 1987, Leung 1989)age and platform (Cameron 1991)degree of difficulty (Strupler 1982, Zimmermann 1993)wrist (Le Viet, 1993)shoulder (Rubin, 1993-1994)neck (Schneider 1962, Anderson 1993, Zhou,

1999)eyes (retina) (Wu, 1999)

3 what is in the literature?

Some available data in diving:

Body type (Hebbelinck 1975, Lopez 1979, Thorland 1981, Khosla 1984, Sovak 1992)

Vestibular training (Rau 1975, Gundlach 1984, Krueger 1985)

Somersault machine (Krug 2000)

Human performance limits (Knoll 2000)

Talent identification (Wien 1988, Zimmermann 2006)

The somersault machine

4 what is missing in the literature?

Volume: the number of articles is small compared to other sports

Quality of evidence: the articles are not very good, according to modern standards of research

• expert opinion vs. proof from research• questionaires vs. prospective research• older than 10 years• non published = not reviewed by experts

5 summary and invitation

Please study the medical aspects of diving:

some books and articles are available.

Please get involved in diving, the divers need your care, the sport needs your research!

Diving literature collection: www.springschool.nl

Thank for your attention