[Finger and shoulder injuries in rock climbing]

Sport climbing is rapidly becoming a popular trend sport, which has resulted in a surge of climbing-specific injuries.

The goal of this paper is to delineate the incidence of climbing-specific injuries focusing on finger and shoulder injuries. Furthermore, we aim to illustrate clinical symptoms and therapeutic strategies based on the current literature.

The incidence of climbing-specific injuries in a large patient population was recorded and diagnosis and treatment options were assessed considering the current literature.

Finger and shoulder injuries are the most common entities in sport climbing. With regard to finger injuries, more than 30 different differential diagnoses were identified, with pulley injuries, tenosynovitis, epiphyseal fractures, as well as lumbrical muscle tears being of the greatest importance due to their climbing-specific nature. With regard to shoulder injuries, SLAP lesions play a particularly important role, currently representing the fifth most common diagnosis in the patient population analyzed. Further pathologies that are becoming increasingly important among sport climbers are injuries of the rotator cuff, long biceps tendon ruptures, impingement syndromes and injuries caused by shoulder dislocations (e.g. Bankart lesions).

Finger injuries are common in sports climbing and can be challenging to diagnose and treat correctly. The number of shoulder injuries is expected to rise as new competition modalities and sub-disciplines (e.g. bouldering) increasingly stress athletes' musculoskeletal systems. An increase of degenerative injuries in long-time climbers is expected due to changes in the sport.