Racket Sports-Related Injuries in Youth Athletes: A Narrative Review

The popularity of racket sports has been increasing globally in recent years, with tennis remaining the most played sport worldwide and pickleball gaining popularity in the United States. While many studies have addressed injuries associated with racket sports in adult athletes, minimal data are available focusing on young athletes in pediatric and adolescent populations. This study aimed to review the various injuries associated with racket sports in pediatric and adolescent populations.

Using the PubMed database, we searched for studies completed in the last 10 years that addressed injuries due to racket sports in age groups up to 18 years old, as well as adult studies that included pediatric and adolescent populations.

In total, 60 studies met our inclusion criteria, of which 18 were descriptive studies. The most common injuries reported in the studies were lower extremity injuries, specifically knee and ankle injury. Upper extremity injuries were the next most common, specifically shoulder injuries. Most of the studies reported multiple musculoskeletal injuries as opposed to just one. Tennis was found to be the racket sport that caused the highest number of injuries, as well as the most severe injuries.

There are few studies on musculoskeletal injuries from racket sports in pediatric and adolescent populations. This review found that tennis had the highest number of studies, and different types and severities of injuries were well-described. Lower extremity overuse injuries were the most common, followed by upper extremity injuries. Eye injuries were less common but serious. Injuries cause pain, time loss in school, and increased healthcare burden, so there is public health relevance to conducting more racket sport studies. There is a significant amount of physical and mental growth occurring during childhood and adolescence; therefore, more kinematic studies and systematic reviews should be conducted pertaining to racket sports, which will hopefully help with injury prevention in these age groups.