Acute Radial Compressive Neuropathy: The Most Common Injury Induced by Japanese Rope Bondage
A 2023 Cureus paper by Khodulev and colleagues that surveys nerve injuries among rope bondage practitioners and finds the radial nerve was the structure most often affected.
This peer-reviewed article by V. Khodulev, A. Klimko, N. Charnenka, M. Zharko and H. Khoduleva appeared in the open-access journal Cureus on 28 May 2023 (volume 15, issue 5, article e39588). Four of the authors are based in Minsk, Belarus, and one in Zurich, Switzerland.
The authors start from a gap they name in their introduction: rope bondage has grown in popularity, yet the medical literature says little about how often nerve injuries occur in it or what they look like. To begin filling that gap they questioned four experienced riggers and people who were willing to describe injuries they had suffered, and they add a detailed case examined with nerve conduction studies and high-resolution ultrasound.
The survey covered ten people with sixteen injuries to the radial, axillary or femoral nerves. The radial nerve was involved in nine of the ten people, and the injuries the authors describe came on immediately after full suspensions. In the case report, a woman developed wrist and finger drop after a suspension and recovered fully within months; later compressions at the same site also resolved.
The authors conclude that knowing the course of the radial nerve in the upper arm, where it runs close to the bone near the lower end of the deltoid, matters for preventing these injuries, and they call for precautions among practitioners. The paper cites a 2020 Carleton University thesis on rope bondage culture and Midori’s The Seductive Art of Japanese Bondage for background.