• Charlotte Ganderton, Annie Strauch, Catherine Etty-Leal, and Adrian Pranata.
• RMIT University, PO Box 71, Bundoora 3083, Australia. charlotte.ganderton@rmit.edu.au.
• Med Probl Perform Art. 2024 Mar 1; 39 (1): 171-7.

ObjectiveTo investigate the frequency and trends of musculoskeletal medical attention injuries occurring in Australian professional musical theatre performers over two consecutive Australian city tours.MethodsMedical attention performance-related injuries were prospectively reported from 269 professional Australian music theatre performers across nine professional music theatre productions from 2015 to 2020. Medical attention injuries were defined as a presentation to physiotherapy for assessment or treatment of a body region that may or may not have resulted in time lost on stage.Results844 injuries were reported in City 1 and 776 injuries were reported in the City 2. The proportion of performers reporting injuries in City 1 ranged from 39.5% to 96.4% and in City 2, from 15.4% to 92.9%. Cervical spine injuries (ncity1 = 194, ncity2 = 187) were the most prevalent musculoskeletal presentation to physiotherapy followed by lumbar spine (ncity1 = 124, ncity2 = 117) and thoracic spine (ncity1 = 124, ncity2 = 90). There were more acute injuries reported in City 1 than City 2 (adj residuals = -4.09, p < 0.001) and more persistent injuries in City 2 (adj residuals = 4.09, p < 0.001).ConclusionAlmost half of all injuries requiring medical attention in Australian professional music theatre performers were related to the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine, with an increasing trend of cervical spine injury frequency across show durations. The study suggests a need for targeted injury prevention strategies in this population.

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