Ski Poles Research Articles

Skiers's thumb injuries associated with flared ski pole handles : Primiano GA. Am J Sports Med 1985; 13: 425–427

Skiers's thumb injuries associated with flared ski pole handles : Primiano GA. Am J Sports Med 1985; 13: 425–427

Injuries in Handicapped Alpine Ski Racers.

In brief: Disabled persons have many opportunities for recreational and competitive skiing. They are subject to the same injury risk as able-bodied skiers, but they also have problems related to their disabilities. This questionnaire study of 68 handicapped skiers showed a rate of 2 injuries per 1,000 skier-days as compared with 2.8 to 5.35 per 1,000 skier-days in nondisabled skiers. Leg fractures, contusions, lacerations, and knee injuries were most commonly reported. The outrigger injury is a particular hazard for amputee skiers. Strengthening the legs, learning to displace outriggers to a safe position while falling, and holding the ski pole correctly to avoid skier's thumb will help reduce the injury rate among disabled skiers.

Thumb injuries in downhill skiing.

Thumb injuries are next to knee injuries the most common injury in downhill skiing today. In this material they constituted 17% of all skiing injuries. Three-fourths of the thumb injuries were lesions of the ulnar collateral ligament of the metacarpophalangeal joint. Compared to a control population consisting of 1619 randomly chosen uninjured skiers, we found that no type of ski pole handle in common use today eliminated the risk of thumb injury, but the injury frequency was higher when using a ski pole with a big plate on the top of the handle. It was, however, of no importance how the skier gripped the ski pole in relation to the strap. It is suggested that the skier during a fall holds on to the ski pole until the very last moment before the hand hits the ground. The ski pole handle then remains in the hand and constitutes the hypomochlium that forces the thumb into abduction and extension, which causes the typical ulnar collateral ligament injury.

Upper extremity injuries in skiing.

In a six-year study, 1,711 ski injuries and 998 controls at Sugarbush North Ski Area were studied. Upper extremity injuries, which constituted 25% of all ski injuries, did not increase in frequency. Men and women were at equal risk of injury. When edging conditions were poor, upper extremity injuries were more common than lower extremity injuries. Forty percent of all upper extremity injuries involved the thumb (85% included injuries to the ulnar collateral ligament of the metacarpophalangeal joint). Twenty-five percent of 405 skiers interviewed had, at one time, injured their thumbs while skiing but only one-quarter of these reported their injury. Our study suggests that injury to the ulnar collateral ligament of the metacarpophalangeal joint may be the most frequent in skiing and that gripping the ski pole outside the strap may prevent these injuries.

Before Skiing Was Fun

Standing on a pair of twelve-foot-long wooden skis one winter morning in the 1870s, John Gladwyn Webb paused to admire the beauty of the Colorado Rockies. An Oxford graduate and a self-styled soldier of fortune, Webb was bound for the scene of a recent mining strike. Pushing off with his single ski pole, the prospector began to descend a moderately steep slope. Suddenly he fell, his feet popping loose from the one-strap bindings. Fortunately, he was able to grab one ski, but the other disappeared down the mountainside. Standing up, Webb realized his predicament. He could hardly rely on a rescue party to discover him, because no one knew of his trip. Since the snow was from ten to thirty feet deep, he could not walk to safety either. One slim chance remained, and the Oxford man seized upon it. At the point where he had lost his balance, Webb placed the remaining ski in the track of the missing one. Lying on his ski as much as possible, he set off, steering with his elbows. After descending the slope, he spotted the lost ski, dug it out of a snowdrift, and then continued on his way.1 Although Webb's experience may have been unique, his mode of travel was not. From 1860 to 1920, skis were an important form of transportation in the Rocky Mountain West. Histories of Colorado and of skiing have largely ignored the transportation function of skis.2 Warner A. Root,

SKI POLE THUMB INJURY

Disabling injuries can occur in the area of the MP joint of the thumb when a skier falls against the planted ski pole while holding the ski strap in the usual fashion. This is presently the most common ski injury of the upper extremity. It is important to determine if instability has resulted, because there may be disruption of the ulnar aspect of joint capsule as well as of the extensoradductor hood mechanism. If this has occurred, it is immediately to prevent the development of the chronic "gamekeeper's thumb."

Penetrating wound of both frontal lobes by a ski pole; report of a case with recovery.

THE famous crowbar case of Phineas Gage is not without its occasional parallels in present-day medicine. The case reported below illustrates a type of skiing injury unusual even in a northern New England area accustomed to encountering all varieties of trauma concomitant to winter sports.Head injuries as a result of skiing are distinctly uncommon, although skull fractures, extradural hematomas, concussions and subdural hematomas occur. Deaths from broken necks, sustained in skiing, have also happened. Penetrating wounds of the head and brain are distinctly unusual. The patient described below, a fifteen-year-old boy, sustained a penetrating wound of the right cheek . . .