Soft tissue and muscle injuries occurring more frequently with the growing sport, according to Dr. Gerhardt.
Article Link: Pickleball Boom Nets New Healthcare Opportunities (medscape.com)
Overuse accounts for some injuries. Pickleball elbow, pulled muscles, and fractures also occur frequently.
Muscle and tendon strains are sprains are common, and less often, tendon ruptures such as Achilles’ tears, are seen, said Michael Gerhardt, MD, a sports medicine specialist and orthopedic surgeon at CS-KJI and an avid pickleball player.
In an analysis of 300 pickleball-related injuries treated at US emergency departments from 2001 to 2017, players aged 50 years or older accounted for nearly 91% of patients. Strains, sprains, and fractures were most common. In another analysis of 28,984 pickleball injuries that occurred in players aged 60 years or older from 2010 to 2019, sprains, strains, fractures, and contusions predominated.
