Study shows 1 in 4 volleyball players show symptoms of severe artery injury

A study involving 25% of all the professional volleyball players surveyed show that one in four volleyball players show symptoms of severe artery injury. 

Dr. Mario Maas, Senior Author of the study and a radiologist at the University of Amsterdam Medical Center and colleagues started their research after having six volleyball players with ischemic digits and small microemboli in the digital arteries of the dominant hand visit their hospital in a three-month span.

“These complaints were caused by aneursysmatic dilation of the posterior circumflex humeral artery with distal occlusion and digital emboli in the isolateral limb,” the reports state.

Those patients inspired them to conduct a survey of nearly 100 players to see how many of them had warning signs associated with the same injury.

These symptoms include experiencing cold, blue-colored, or pail fingers during or immediately following a volleyball game, caused by miniature blood clots that comes from the damaged artery.  

No examinations were performed and 27% of the 99 male players surveyed stated that they experienced those symptoms. 27 of them said they experienced cold fingers during play and 18 of them said their digits had turned blue and 20 others said their fingers had become pale.

Other four participants said they often had blue or pale fingers, and eight said that their fingers regularly became cold.

The unexpected high percentage of elite volleyball players reported symptoms associated with PCHAP with DE in the dominant hand.