title: Wrist injuries in guarded versus unguarded first time snowboarders.
abstract: In 1999, a study was done examining the injury risk and pattern in first time snowboarders versus first time skiers. Although these rates were similar, snowboarders sustained a higher percentage of injuries to the upper extremity, particularly wrist sprains and fractures. As an extension of this previous study, the protective value during snowboarding of an off-the-shelf wrist guard originally designed for inline skating was tested. Two thousand three hundred fifty-five first time snowboarders were evaluated at one northeastern ski resort. Five hundred fifty-one snowboarders wore wrist guards and a control group of more than 1800 snowboarders did not wear wrist guards. Forty wrist injuries were sustained in the control group (2.2%), compared with no injuries (0%) in the snowboarders who wore wrist guards. Importantly, there was no increase in more proximal or distal upper extremity injuries in the group of snowboarders who wore wrist guards.
authors.affiliation: New Hampshire Knee Center, PO Box 840, Ashland, NH 03217, USA. pso@cyberportal.net
authors.forename: Daniel Fulham
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: O'Neill
mesh_terms: D000056:Accident Prevention; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011482:Protective Devices; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012865:Skiing / Q000293:injuries*; D013997:Time Factors; D014954:Wrist Injuries / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*