Background: Studded footwear can cause severe lacerations in rugby union; the prevalence of these injuries is currently unknown.
Objective: To summarise the skin and laceration injury prevalence in published epidemiological studies and to investigate any differences in skin injury risk between amateur and professional players.
Design: Systematic literature review and meta-analysis of epidemiological studies.
Data sources: PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and Ovid.
Eligibility criteria for selecting studies: Prospective, epidemiological studies published in English after 1995, measuring a minimum of 400 match or 900 training exposure hours. Participants should be adult rugby union players (amateur or professional). The study should report a separate skin or laceration injury category and provide sufficient detail to calculate injury prevalence within this category.
Results: Twelve studies were included. Mean skin injury prevalence during matches was 2.4 injuries per 1000 exposure hours; during training sessions, the prevalence was 0.06 injuries per 1000 exposure hours. Skin injuries accounted for 5.3% of match injuries and 1.7% of training injuries. Skin injury risk was similar for amateur compared with professional players during matches (OR: 0.63, p=0.46.), but higher during training sessions (OR: 9.24, p=0.02).
Conclusions: The skin injury prevalence of 2.4 injuries per 1000 exposure hours is equivalent to one time-loss injury sustained during matches per team, per season. Amateur players are more likely to sustain skin injuries during training sessions than professional players. There is a need for more studies observing injuries among amateur players.
Trial registration number: PROSPERO CRD42015024027.
Keywords: Dermatology; Epidemiology; Injury; Review; Rugby.