Recreational Skydiving—Really That Dangerous? A Systematic Review

Abstract

Skydiving have gained mainstream popularity over the past decades. However, limited data exist on the injury risk or type associated with skydiving. This systematic review evaluated the injuries and fatalities of civilian skydivers. A PRISMA-guided literature search was performed in MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Embase using the following MeSH terms: “skydiving” or “parachute” alone or in combination with “injury” or “trauma” was performed including all studies through June 2022 in both English and German. Additionally, injury reports from the German, American, and British Parachute Associations were reviewed. Of the 277 articles matching the selected search terms, 10 original articles and 34 non-scientific reports from various skydiving associations were included. More than 62 million jumps were evaluated, with an average of 3,200,000 jumps per year, which showed an average injury rate of 0.044% and an average fatality rate of 0.0011%. The most common injuries sustained by recreational skydivers involved the lumbar spine and lower extremities. Injuries were most commonly reported during the landing sequence. With modern equipment and training methods, fatalities occur in less than 1 per 100,000 cases, and serious injuries requiring hospitalization in less than 2 per 10,000 cases. This puts the assessment of skydiving as a high-risk sport into perspective.

Repetitive strikes loading organ culture model to investigate the biological and biomechanical responses of the intervertebral disc

“…The one strike group underwent MS on Day 2 and received daily loading at (0.02-0.2 MPa, 1 Hz, 1 h/day) from Day 1 to Day 32, with the remainder of the time spent in free swelling in the culture medium. In the repetitive one strike group, loading was conducted daily, excluding Days 2,5,8,11,14,17,20,23,26, and 29, with the remaining time allocated for free swelling in the culture medium. The chamber was filled with culture medium to prevent dehydration of IVDs.…”

“…For repetitive one strike group, MS was applied on following days: Days 2,5,8,11,14,17,20,23,26,29, and physiological loading was performed for the rest of the day up to Day 32 (long term).…”

“…Dynamic compression stiffness was evaluated at specific time points using a custom-designed bioreactor following overnight free swelling on Days 1,2,5,8,11,14,17,20,23,26,29, and 32. 19 The IVD underwent a 3-min preload, applying a 10% strain determined by the disc height measured before stiffness evaluation, followed by 10 rounds of sinusoidal compression ranging from 5% to 15% strain (10% strain/s).…”

“…19 Repetitive and high amplitude loading plays a pivotal role in lumbar spine injuries. [20][21][22] Previous research has demonstrated that the application of repetitive axial, nonviolent loading induces an expedited progression of intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) in rabbits. 23 Several researchers have documented that multiple disc puncture injuries initiate a detrimental cycle involving inflammatory responses and matrix degradation, ultimately resulting in progressive disc degeneration.…”

“…Repetitive and high amplitude loading plays a pivotal role in lumbar spine injuries 20–22 . Previous research has demonstrated that the application of repetitive axial, nonviolent loading induces an expedited progression of intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) in rabbits 23 .…”