Acute archery injuries mostly affect the fingers and hand
4 studies · 301 archers measured
The summary today
It depends where you count them. In United States emergency departments, ten years of archery-related visits, about 43,000 on the national estimate, tell a story about fingers: in men the finger is 66.2% of injury sites and the hand 17.1%, the commonest injury is a laceration (58.1%) and nobody was admitted. In women the database records 100% finger lacerations, a figure the authors themselves treat as a limitation. That database, however, takes in anyone hurt with a bow and arrows, at home as much as on a farm or at school, without saying whether they were competing. Among competitive archers the picture is different and much smaller: in 62 German and European archers there are six acute injuries over their whole careers, four bruises to the arm, one cut to the hand from a broken arrow and one to the head, nearly all caused by a bow, arrow or string breaking; in 239 archers in Florida there are seven acute cases, among them bruising, a cut, forearm burns and a broken thumb. A 2021 review reads the study of the 62 competitive archers and states that 83.3% of acute injuries are fractures, but in the original paper that 83.3% is the share caused by equipment breaking. The studies therefore point in opposite directions, and the difference seems to lie in who is being counted rather than in the movement itself.
Also phrased as: "finger injuries in archery"; "cuts to the hands from arrows"; "string breakage and injuries"; "archery accidents"
In practice
It is said that sudden archery injuries mostly happen to the fingers, from arrow points or the string, while the rest of the body is only at risk of overuse.
Evidence
-
2016
Context Archers Published later
Among 239 archers in Florida there are seven acute cases among all the injuries reported: bruising, a cut, forearm burns and a broken thumb, while everything else is overuse. The abstract lists the types without counting them by site.
Prevalence And Characteristics Of Archery-related Injuries In Archers · Bryan Prine, Amanda Prine, Trevor Leavitt, Joseph Wasser, Heather K. Vincent
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2018
Against Archers Published later
62 national and European-level archers, with a questionnaire covering their whole careers: there are six acute injuries, all in the national group, four to the arm (66.7%, all bruises), one to the hand, a cut from a broken arrow, and one to the head. 83.3% were caused by a bow, arrow or string breaking during the shot, the rest by the string striking the bow arm, and all were minor. Six cases are few, but in these competitive archers the site most often hit is the arm, not the fingers.
Acute and Overuse Injuries in Elite Archers · Claudia K. Niestroj, Volker Schöffl, Thomas Küpper
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2021
Context Review Published later
A review of 162 papers on musculoskeletal injuries in Olympic sports: in most sports the commonest injuries are strains and sprains, and archery appears as an exception, with 83.4% of acute injuries in the upper limb and 83.3% fractures. For archery it cites a single study, the one on 62 competitive archers, where 83.4% is the arm and hand added together and 83.3% is the share of injuries caused by equipment breaking.
Epidemiology of Musculoskeletal Injuries in Adult Athletes: A Scoping Review · Francesca Gimigliano, Giuseppina Resmini, Antimo Moretti, Milena Aulicino, Fiorinda Gargiulo, Alessandra Gimigliano, et al.
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2023
For Archers Published later
The US national emergency department surveillance database, 2013 to 2022: about 43,083 archery injuries on the estimate, 35,367 of them in men. In men the finger is the site in 66.2% of cases and the hand in 17.1%, followed by the face (6.2%), shoulder (5.4%) and foot (5.1%). These are weighted estimates from a sample of hospitals, and the database does not say in what setting people were shooting.
Archery-Related Musculoskeletal Injuries: An Epidemiological Study Revealing Injury Sites, Risk Factors, and Implications for Prevention · Meghana Konda, Rohan Mangal, Anjali Daniel, Thor S. Stead, Latha Ganti
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2023
Context Archers Published later
In men the commonest injury is a laceration (58.1%), followed by fractures (12.7%), contusions and abrasions (7.5%), foreign bodies (5.9%), puncture wounds and strains or sprains (4.9% each). All were treated and released, and nobody was admitted.
Archery-Related Musculoskeletal Injuries: An Epidemiological Study Revealing Injury Sites, Risk Factors, and Implications for Prevention · Meghana Konda, Rohan Mangal, Anjali Daniel, Thor S. Stead, Latha Ganti
-
2023
Context Archers Published later
In women the database records 100% finger lacerations, out of about 8,038 estimated cases: the authors present this as a limitation of the data, which fails to capture the other injuries women are likely to suffer, rather than as a finding.
Archery-Related Musculoskeletal Injuries: An Epidemiological Study Revealing Injury Sites, Risk Factors, and Implications for Prevention · Meghana Konda, Rohan Mangal, Anjali Daniel, Thor S. Stead, Latha Ganti
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2023
Context Archers Published later
82% of the visits are by men and boys; in men the peak is between 10 and 19 years, highest at 15, in women between 30 and 39, highest at 36, and in both sexes there is a fresh rise around the age of fifty.
Archery-Related Musculoskeletal Injuries: An Epidemiological Study Revealing Injury Sites, Risk Factors, and Implications for Prevention · Meghana Konda, Rohan Mangal, Anjali Daniel, Thor S. Stead, Latha Ganti
Status history
- 2016 Not studied The first sample to list archers' acute injuries, 239 archers in Florida, finds seven in all, among them bruising, a cut, forearm burns and a broken thumb, against dozens of overuse injuries, and does not count them by site. Which part of the body they hit most often cannot yet be said.
- 2018 Contradicted Among 62 German and European competitive archers there are six acute injuries over their whole careers: four bruises to the arm, one cut to the hand from a broken arrow and one to the head, nearly all caused by a bow, arrow or string breaking during the shot. The arm comes first, not the fingers. It is a single study with six cases, so the evidence against is thin: contradicted.
- 2021 Contradicted A review of Olympic sports takes up the 2018 study and states that in archers 83.4% of acute injuries affect the upper limb and 83.3% are fractures. The first figure adds together the arm and the hand from the original study; the second, in the original, is the share of injuries caused by equipment breaking, not by broken bones. The review adds no data, and the picture is still six cases with the arm in the lead.
- 2023 Contested The first large count arrives: ten years of visits to US emergency departments, about 43,000 on the estimate, put the finger at 66.2% and the hand at 17.1% in men, with lacerations as the commonest injury. It points the way the claim does, but it covers anyone hurt with a bow and arrows, not just competitive archers, while among competitive archers the few acute cases mostly hit the arm. One study in favour and one against: contested.
Related
Related articles
- Hands, fingers and calluses: skin, small vessels and injuries in archers who shoot a lotHarder skin, calluses, the small vessels of the fingers and acute injuries: what studies have measured in archers' hands, and how firm the findings are.
- Injuries in archery: where they happen and how to prevent themFew serious injuries, frequent overuse: where archers get hurt, what the studies say about risk, and what can be done to prevent the damage.
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). Acute archery injuries mostly affect the fingers and hand (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/acute-injuries-fingers-hand
@misc{campagna2026_infortuniacutidita,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {Acute archery injuries mostly affect the fingers and hand},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/acute-injuries-fingers-hand},
note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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