[Epidemiology of basketball injuries]

The players of an elite basketball team were followed during the course of a season which included 71 games and 250 training sessions. All injuries were noted and were correlated with age, height and other physical parameters of the players, as well as with degree of fatigue during games and during training sessions. The lower extremity was the most common site of injury. Ligamentous injuries of the knee are more common in basketball than in soccer players, but they have fewer meniscal injuries than the latter. However, the upper extremity, especially the hand, is more frequently injured in basketball than in other sports. The age, height and personality of the player affect the injury pattern.