THESE de Virginie DERVAUX

SUMMARYThe federation of Chinese Martial Arts was created in 2005. The medical committeesand the representatives of the trainers who laid down the rules and the conditions,specially those concerning the protection measures, have attracted the attention to thefact that traumatic risks related to the practice of Kung Fu Wushu are not sufficientlyknown. The only existing references are the accident claims (registrations): 27 in Ile deFrance in 2006. This low rate of accident claims raised following questions: is thepractice of Kung Fu Wushu not traumatic - or - are the traumatisms ignored.In order to answer this question, a retrospective and anonymous study was made in 16clubs in Ile de France. 4370 persons practise Kung Fu Wushu in Ile de France. 269sportsmen older than 15 years filled in the questionnaires by themselves. Thisquestionnaire allowed them to locate and describe the traumatisms occurred during thelast three months and the taking into consideration of their injuries. This questionnairemade it possible to define: the number, the type, the location of the traumatisms andthe carefulness or medical treatments received. Most of the athletes (77%) were men,and the average age was 27,2 years. They describe 526 traumatisms which haveoccurred between January and March 2006; These traumatisms are: bruises (34,6%) ,articular attacks (29,4%), muscular attacks(15,6%) and haematomas (9%), suspicion offracture(4,8%) or wounds (3,1%) . They are mainly located in the lower limbs (57%)and only (31%) in the upper limbs. One finds two main categories of traumatisms: onthe one hand the traumatisms which are potentially benign(41%) and have littleimpact on every-day life , for instance : bruises, pains and wounds, on the other handthe traumatisms which are potentially serious(59%) and which have an impact onevery-day life (immobilization, stop of sporting practice, stoppage of work) , forinstance : muscular attacks, haematomas and suspicion of fracture. 16% of thetraumatisms were seen by a professional of heath but only 0,7% were declared andregistered. Only 27% of the potentially serious traumatisms have been seen by a doctor.15% of the traumatisms required an immobilization of the injured part.(16%) obligedthe sportsman to stop the sport on the average 23 days. 1,9% of these traumatismsrequired a stoppage of work of 30 days on the average.Kung Fu Wushu is much more traumatic than the register of the assurance of thefederation indicated; obviously most of the accidents are not declared or registered.KEYS WORDSInjuriesKung fu whushuLocationCarefulness or medical treatments131