gms | German Medical Science

Objectives/Interrogation: The body-stress and risk of accidents of the hands and wrist's for professional stuntwomen and stuntmen do not correspond to those of actors, but much more to those of professional competitive athletes in various hand-involved sports. Thus, there is a high risk of specific hand and wrist injuries in this profession, even if special job-specific and stunt-specific protectors are used and protective measures are carried out. Nevertheless, this has not yet been specifically recorded in the literature. The question of how occupational disabilities and their durations in this particularly risky occupational group can be traced back to injuries of the wrist's and hands is not adequately described in the literature.

Methods: The aim of the present retrospective study was therefore to record the occupation-specific risk for hand and wrist injuries in professional stuntwomen and stuntmen.

For this reason, in a period of 12 months 120 professional stuntwomen and stuntmen (definition of professionalism is the predominant> 80% income protection of the injured by the activity in the above-mentioned profession) in German-speaking countries were interviewed to injuries of the hands and wrists, in the past 10 years as part of their professional activity. The detected injuries were grouped by type and by accident mechanism (type of stunt leading to injury). In addition, the forms of treatment, resulting occupational disabilities and persistent limitations of stunt ability after hand injuries as stuntwoman and stuntmen were recorded.

Results and Conclusions: The results showed that despite the high risk of injuries in the context of the occupational activities mentioned above serious injuries occurred significantly less often than minor injuries in the surveyed group. Most common injuries were joint and bony injuries of more than 40%, followed by tendon and other soft tissue injuries.

Specific injury patterns of the wrist's and hand could be assigned to typical common stunt forms. Thus, the study allows the creation of a stunt-dependent risk profile for wrist and hand injuries. In addition, thus stunt-dependent risks for the emergence of resulting occupational disabilities periods and their duration can be derived. This is here of interest not only for private accident insurances, but also for the German social accident insurance institution - Berufsgenossenschaft.

From this, however, stunt-specific hand-protective measures can be derived and recommended. These are presented in connection with the stunt-forms.