Danish doctors have described a case of a painful scalp lesion where hair falls out. When collecting anamnesis, it turned out that the patient, a professional breakdancer, had been performing the element of headspin for 19 years, in which a person balances on his head while spinning around the vertical axis of the body. An examination showed that the lump on the head is a typical case of a "headspin hole", in which connective tissue grows in the scalp from constant stress. The case is described in BMJ Case Reports.
Breakdancing involves a variety of complex and physically demanding techniques that isolate certain parts of the body. The complex nature of these movements makes breakdancers particularly susceptible to injuries to the wrist, fingers, knees, shoulders, lower back, elbows, neck, ankles, feet, and hips. The most common injuries are sprains and strains.
Long-term breakdancing often leads to a number of chronic conditions known collectively as "excessive breakdancing syndrome." These include carpal tunnel syndrome, tendovaginitis, impingement syndrome, chronic bruises to the back and head, persistent hair loss, and persistent scalp irritation from headspinning. A specific form of excessive scalp damage caused by repeated head spinning is called a "headspin hole." It is believed that up to 60 percent of dancers suffer from this condition. However, there are few case reports.
A man in his 30s was referred to doctors led by Christian Baastrup Søndergaard from the University of Copenhagen with complaints of a painful swelling of the scalp and hair loss that had developed after 19 years of intensive breakdancing.
His regimen consisted of about five 90-minute workouts per week. During each workout, he would perform a headspin lasting between two and seven minutes. Over the past five years, the tumor had noticeably increased in size and had become painful. The presence of the tumor and the associated discomfort were aesthetically unpleasant for the patient, but the lump did not prevent the patient from continuing to practice breakdancing.
On clinical examination, a longitudinally oriented mass was visible on the vertex, along the midline. The mass was painful to the touch and not adherent to the skin. This led doctors to assume that it was located under the tendon cap of the head. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a mass under the tendon cap measuring 33.4 x 0.6 x 2.9 centimeters near the midline with vascular structures. The skin and subcutaneous tissue above the mass were thickened, as was the skull bone beneath the mass.
Doctors removed the tumor surgically. Histological analysis showed non-specific reactive changes in the form of fairly extensive fibrosis (proliferation of connective tissue) without signs of malignancy. A month later, the patient did not complain of pain in the same place, and he was completely satisfied with the aesthetic result of the operation.
Not only doctors, but also physicists deal with dancing and its consequences. For example, our editor tried to figure out whether it is possible to describe mosh in terms of physical processes.