Going breakdancing today? If so, maybe go easy on the headspins. Unless you want to end up with a “cone-head”, that is.
Breakdancing’s extreme physical demands mean it is known to involve a high risk of injury: everything from hair loss to sprains and damage to almost every part of the anatomy.
But now breakdancing enthusiasts have been warned of a new danger: that spinning on their heads too much could lead to them developing a sizeable protrusion on top of their head.
This has emerged as a potential hazard in a case report in a leading medical journal about a man in his 30s in Denmark who developed such a visible lump on his head, as a result of undertaking breakdancing training up to five times a week for 19 years, that he had surgery to remove it.
It grew as a result of what breakdancers call “headspin hole” or “breakdance bulge”, which BMJ Case Reports describes as “a unique overuse injury in breakdancers caused by repetitive headspins”.
The case report, written by two of the doctors who treated him at Copenhagen university hospital, details how “his training regimen consisted of approximately five sessions a week, each lasting around one-and-a-half hours. During each session there was direct pressure applied to the vertex of the head [from spinning on it] for durations ranging from two minutes to seven minutes.”
Over the five years before he was referred for treatment for his protuberance, “there had been a notable increase in its size and the onset of tenderness. The presence of the lesion and associated discomfort were aesthetically displeasing to the patient, but the protuberance had not hindered the patient from continuing his head-spinning activities.”
Doctors initially considered a number of possible diagnoses, including that the bulge could be cancer or a benign tumour.
An MRI scan showed that it was what the authors of the case report call “a subgaleal mass measuring 34cm x 0.6cm x 2.9cm near the midline vertex”.
It turned out to be an extreme example of the lump on the scalp that “headspin hole” can involve. “In radiologic descriptions, the term ‘cone-head sign’ is used,” the doctors write.
The unnamed man, tired of wearing a cap or hat to hide his pointy growth, opted to have surgery rather than have injections of steroids, which may have shrunk it.
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He was pleased with once again having a more normal-shaped head, he told BMJ Case Reports. “The outcome is much better than it looked before, and I am glad I had it done,” he said. “I would choose to do it again if I had the choice.
“It is now possible for me to go out in public without a cap/hat, which is of course a very nice feeling. I have received a lot of positive feedback and people say it looks well done, that I have a nice scar, and that my overall appearance has improved significantly.”
The case report does not say if he is still spinning on his head five times a week.
