SINGAPORE – Miss Lam Kar Yi, 18, has been dancing and performing ballet since she was in Major 2.
In February 2020, the dance graduate from College of the Arts Singapore (Sota) was recognized with patellar tendinitis – throughout a interval when her coaching intensified in preparation for performances. Also referred to as jumper’s knee, the situation is an overuse harm which happens in individuals who do loads of leaping on account of vital will increase in coaching load and/or depth.
Miss Lam, who’s skilled in classical ballet and up to date dance, underwent remedy on the Singapore Sport and Train Medication Centre (SSMC) in Changi Basic Hospital (CGH), and likewise took a three-month break from dancing.
However it was not the primary time she had sustained dance-related accidents. She first sought remedy, which included physiotherapy classes, at CGH in March 2019. A couple of months later, she endured a dance evaluation at school with puffy and swollen knees.
CGH’s new Performing Arts Medication initiative, rolled out on Dec 15, goals to assist artistes like Miss Lam. Like athletes, the hospital notes, performing artistes additionally spend lengthy hours coaching and may maintain accidents.
Underneath the initiative, a Performing Arts Medication Clinic was launched on the SSMC at Novena Medical Middle. It collaborates with the crew at CGH to coordinate care and supply entry to the hospital’s full vary of specialities.
The programme is helmed by two physicians from CGH’s division of sport and train medication who’ve an curiosity in dance medication and instrumental medication, in addition to an ear, nostril and throat surgeon with an curiosity in vocal medication.
Together with a multidisciplinary crew, they consider and deal with medical situations afflicting dancers, instrumentalists and vocalists in any respect efficiency ranges.
Citing a global cross-sectional examine revealed in 2017, CGH factors out that as many as 84 per cent of dancers maintain dance-related musculoskeletal accidents, usually on account of overuse.
The hospital additionally referred to a set of baseline findings from the Danger of Music College students, a analysis venture arrange in 2018 to determine components related to elevated danger of playing-related musculoskeletal problems in music college students from pan-European establishments. The longitudinal multicentre examine, revealed in 2020, discovered that the lifetime prevalence of playing-related musculoskeletal dysfunction in music college students in Europe is between 62 and 93 per cent.
As for vocalists, they could be vulnerable to laryngitis, vocal twine haemorrhages and polyps. They might additionally expertise hoarseness and have poor vocal endurance that may intervene with the standard and readability of their voice.
A performer may also be affected by quite a lot of ear, nostril and throat problems, which may embrace listening to loss, tinnitus, sinus illness and swallowing issues.
CGH is unable to say if the variety of sufferers with performing arts-related accidents has elevated within the final 5 years because the initiative was rolled out solely just lately.
Nevertheless, it notes that the native arts and cultural scene has seen an uptick of performers and performances over time. In line with the Singapore Cultural Statistics in 2020, a median of 8,700 performing arts occasions have been held every year from 2015 to 2019.
