Neurologic Complications of Surfing: A Scoping Literature and Medical Record Review
Nicholas Bellacicco1, Roopa Sharma1, Zachary Lodato1, Kazim Jaffry1, Howard Sander2, Nizar Souayah1
1Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, 2Department of Neurology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Objective:
To review literature and Electronic Medical Record (EMR) data regarding the neurologic complications of surfing.
Background:
The field of Sports Neurology addresses neurological disorders associated with sports. While the perceived focus of Sports Neurology is on contact sports, other athletes such as surfers may experience neurologic complications of their sport which may be traumatic or nontraumatic.
Design/Methods:
We conducted a scoping literature review using PubMed and Embase. Search terms were “((surfing and surfer) AND (neurology or neurological or neurologic)) AND (surfing injuries or surfing injury).” Inclusion criteria were review articles and case reports describing neurological injuries or complications associated with surfing. Articles were excluded if repeated or descriptions of manuscripts did not include neurologic complications of surfing. A retrospective analysis of EMR data from EPIC medical record system was completed with search criteria “injury while surfing.” Date range was 1/1/2000 to 9/27/2023.
Results:
In total, 64 articles from PubMed and Embase were screened. Of the 64 articles, 27 met inclusion criteria. Of the 27 articles reviewed, 19/27 were case reports or reviews of surfer’s myelopathy. The next most common reported surfing related neurological complication was cervical spine trauma in 5/27 manuscripts. Other neurological injuries reported included common peroneal neuropathy (1/27), post traumatic headache (1/27), and thoracic/lumbar injury (1/27). With EMR data collection, 601 patients were identified, and 73 patients had neurological diagnosis/diagnoses associated with surfing. Diagnoses were: lumbar/thoracic nerve vertebrae damage (n=51), cervical spine trauma/injury (n=17), post-traumatic headache n=13, and peroneal neuropathy (n=10 or fewer).
Conclusions:
The most commonly reported surfing related neurological complications in the literature review are surfer’s myelopathy and cervical spine injury. These findings are corroborated by a retrospective EMR review. Work is in progress to further characterize neurologic complications of surfing including different surfing modalities and investigate potential curative and preventive interventions.