Ski and snowboard injuries: always good to know

Skiing and snowboarding injuries: always good to know about

At the height of the ski season you may still be planning an excursion and spend a few days enjoying the snow and exercising. Whether yours is classic skiing or snowboarding, today we want to briefly illustrate about the most common injuries in each of the two modalities: what they are, their causes and their symptoms.

Ski

• Anterior cruciate ligament rupture

The anterior cruciate ligament is located on the inside of the knee, in front, and is crucial for the stability of this joint. It is responsible for providing rotational stability to the knee. Of the four main ligaments in the joint, the ACL is the most frequently injured.
There can be several causes of injury to this ligament: sudden changes of direction, sudden braking, poor leg support on the ground after a jump or simply a direct impact on the knee. The affected person feels as if the knee gave way, as if it were going to come off its place; reaching the feeling that the knee no longer supports its weight. This is also accompanied by pain in the inflamed area and inability to support the limb.

• Sprain of medial lateral ligament

This sprain may be due to an impact on the outside of the knee which, forcing the joint inward with great force, tears the ligament; or it may even be due to a forced displacement of the knee while the foot is locked and glued to the ground. Unlike anterior cruciate ligament tears, which mostly require surgical treatment to ensure complete healing, these medial collateral ligament sprains can heal without surgical intervention.

• Skier's Thumb

Although it is not as common a ski injury as knee injuries, many skiers go to medical centers with this ailment. This injury arises from falling on the outstretched hand while holding the ski pole. The ulnar collateral ligament, located on the thumb, of the metacarpophalangeal joint of the first finger joins the neck of the metacarpal of the thumb with the base of the first phalanx, and it is a particularly vulnerable point.

Snowboarding

• Fractured wrist

In the wrist are the scaphoid and the distal radius, which form the base of said joint in the area commonly called the anatomical snuffbox. When taking falls with the wrist bent and the arm extended, these bones suffer a lot and are injured very often.
The scaphoid is a small bone, with a very characteristic morphology, whose mission is to facilitate the mobility of the wrist, and it is its weak point in terms of frequency of injuries.
The other frequent possibility is a fracture of the radius, a bone that is next to the ulna, located at the base of the wrist and where it joins the arm. Surgical intervention is usually necessary depending on the severity of the fracture.

• Shoulder Dislocation

The dislocation occurs when a force is produced on the open hand, with the shoulder in abduction, in external rotation movements or in elevation. It is advisable to choose different therapeutic treatments depending on whether we are talking about a first case of dislocation in the affected person or if it is a pathology that the patient has already suffered on previous occasions.

• Clavicle fracture

Clavicle fractures can be of the proximal, middle, or distal third. The vast majority, around 80%, occur in the middle third of the bone. Most clavicle fractures occur from falls on an outstretched hand or arm, from falls on the shoulder, or from direct impacts to the clavicle itself. Depending on the type of injury and the characteristics of the person affected, the injury can be addressed from non-surgical treatment or undergo surgery.