| The purpose of the study was to describe the magnitude of the
selected sports medicine problems (i.e. cauliflower ear and skin infections)
among wrestlers in Tehran. A number of 411 wrestlers were randomly
selected from wrestling clubs in Tehran employing cluster sample setting
method. The participants were interviewed using a specially designed
and validated questionnaire. Nearly half of the participants (44%)
had "cauliflower ears". Only 23% of these participants had
received any kind of treatment for their acute ear haematomas that
are known to result in "cauliflower ears". The prevalence
of reported hearing loss among participants with cauliflower ears
(11.5%, 95%CI: 6.9 to 16.2) was significantly more than this prevalence
among those participants without cauliflower ears (1.8%, 95%CI: 0.1
to 3.5) (p < 0.05). More than half of the participants (52%) had
skin infection diagnosed by a physician during the previous year.
This study has identified evidence of an increase in hearing loss
as a possible side effect of either cauliflower ear or ear injury
in wrestling in Iran. There has been an outbreak of ringworm and there
is a significant potential for an outbreak of impetigo among wrestlers
in Tehran.
KEY
WORDS: Wrestling, cauliflower ears, skin infections.
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