Cervical injury from skiing

Snow sports related head and spinal injuries: an eight-year survey from the neurotrauma centre for the Snowy Mountains, Australia

Neurotrauma from snow-sports related injuries is infrequently documented in the literature. In Australia no collective data has ever been published. The aim of this study is to document the injury pattern of snow sports related neurotrauma admissions to The Canberra Hospital, the regional trauma centre for the Snowy Mountains. A computerised hospital record search conducted between January 1994 and July 2002 revealed 25 head and 66 spinal injury admissions. The incidence of severe injuries requiring referral to tertiary trauma hospital was estimated to be 7.4 per 100,000 skier-days and for head and spinal injury 1.8 per 1,000,000 skier-days and 5.6 per 1,000,000 skier-days, respectively. Collision with a stationary object was disproportionately associated with head injury ( [Formula: see text] ) and falling forward with spinal injury ( [Formula: see text] ). Snowboarders tended to sustain cervical fractures more often than skiers ( [Formula: see text] ). The importance of helmet usage in buffering the impact of head-on collision and the proposition of having both feet fastened to a snowboard in leading to cervical injury were highlighted.

Cervical fracture in a nordic skier

Cervical injuries with subtle physical and radiographic signs can occur in any sport, even those that do not usually produce significant musculoskeletal trauma. In this case, a cross-country skier's symptoms-shoulder pain and thumb numbness-were initially thought to represent a shoulder injury. Reflex testing raised the possibility of a cervical spine injury. Radiographs were negative for fracture, but computed tomography revealed a fracture of the C-6 right articular pillar. The patient was placed in a rigid cervical orthosis. After 4 months the patient's symptoms resolved and the fracture healed.

Spine and spinal cord injuries in downhill skiers

Spine and spinal cord injuries are the most debilitating and costly of serious injuries sustained by downhill skiers. We present a series of 126 skiers with spine and spinal cord injuries drawn from 636 consecutive injured skiers evaluated at one center over an 11-year period. The incidence of spinal injury was very low (0.001/1000 skier-days). Eighteen (17%) patients had spinal cord injuries associated with their fractures; injuries in the cervical region were most likely to involve the spinal cord. The most commonly fractured levels were C6, T12 and L1; the most common fracture pattern was compression (38%). One-third of all patients had multisystem trauma; those with thoracolumbar injuries were much more likely to sustain torso and extremity trauma than those with cervical injuries. Information about injury patterns in skiers with spinal injuries should aid in the triage and initial evaluation of this blunt trauma population.