Objective To summarise the information available in the literature on the prevalence of injuries in water polo and injury risk factors. Methods Protocol was registered on Open Science Framework. MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase and SPORTDiscus databases were searched for keywords relating to water polo and injuries on 3 February 2021. References were searched for additional studies. Only original research papers in English or French were included, and studies without an injured group were excluded. A data extraction file was made based on the Cochrane Collaboration recommendations. Study quality was evaluated with the Newcastle-Ottawa scales for cohorts and a modified version for cross-sectional studies. Results The initial search yielded 581 articles, with 5 more added from reference lists, but only 41 remained after removing duplicates and applying inclusion/exclusion criteria. Thirty-one articles identified the head, fingers and shoulders as the most common sites of injury. Ten articles on mechanism of injury focused mainly on the shoulder, with degenerative changes, posture, scapular alignment, strength, flexibility and overhead shooting kinematics as the main injury risk factors. Publication types included cohort studies, cross-sectional studies, and one case series. Conclusions Most traumatic injuries affect the hands and the head from unexpected contact with the ball or opponents. Conversely, training injuries seem to affect mainly the shoulder area. Low level evidence suggests a correlation between shoulder injuries and lack of strength or flexibility as well as large volumes of overhead throwing. Further prospective research is needed to investigate risk factors for other body areas.

中文翻译：

---

水球运动损伤的发生率和机制：系统评价

目的 总结文献中有关水球伤害流行率和伤害危险因素的信息。方法协议已在开放科学框架上注册。2021 年 2 月 3 日，在 MEDLINE、CINAHL、Embase 和 SPORTDiscus 数据库中搜索了与水球和伤害相关的关键词。搜索了参考文献以获取更多研究。仅包括英文或法文的原始研究论文，排除没有受伤组的研究。数据提取文件是根据 Cochrane Collaboration 的建议制作的。研究质量通过队列的纽卡斯尔-渥太华量表和横断面研究的修改版本进行评估。结果 最初的搜索产生了 581 篇文章，另外还有 5 篇来自参考文献列表，但在删除重复项并应用纳入/排除标准后，仅剩下 41 个。31 篇文章将头部、手指和肩部确定为最常见的损伤部位。十篇关于损伤机制的文章主要集中在肩部，退行性改变、姿势、肩胛骨对齐、力量、灵活性和过顶射击运动学是主要的损伤危险因素。出版物类型包括队列研究、横断面研究和一个案例系列。结论 大多数创伤性损伤会因与球或对手的意外接触而影响手和头部。相反，训练损伤似乎主要影响肩部区域。低水平的证据表明肩部受伤与缺乏力量或灵活性以及大量过顶投掷之间存在相关性。