Introduction: Judo is a martial art developed by dr. Jigoo Kano in 1882. The sport gained in popularity after the second World War, and was introduced at the Olympic games in Tokyo in 1964. Judo is a combat sport and has a high demand on ones body due to the high intensity and the production of great forces. The high injury rate has short term and long term consequences on the athlete. On the short term, the athlete is unable to compete or train, and on the long term effect on the body is shown as arthrosis in the joints or even the inability to continue with the sport, forcing the athlete to an early retirement. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to review scientific literature and show the most common injuries. Methods: The available literature on Pubmed was searched on the topic of injuries in judo up until October 2017 Results: The percentage of injuries amongst athletes varied between 12,9% - 100%. The most injured body part was the shoulder and knee, followed by the elbow joint and fingers. Types of injuries were mostly contusions, strains, sprains, fractures and dislocations. The mechanism of injuries happened mostly during the standing portion of the fight, when the athlete made contact with the ground or during grip fighting. Discussion and conclusion: Judo is a high intensity contact sport, where the number of injuries is high. The most injured body parts are the shoulder, knee and fingers. The most common mechanism of injury was during standing fighting after the athlete made contact with the mat. Further studies should focus on the period, where the athletes are most likely to injure themselves.
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