SKIING INJURIES IN CHILDREN, ADOLESCENTS, AND ADULTS

We prospectively gathered data on skiing injuries that had been sustai ned at the Sugarbush North ski area since 1972 and at the Sugarbush So uth ski area since 1981. The purpose of the current study was to docum ent the overall rates of injury in children, adolescents, and adults p articipating in alpine skiing. We also sought to determine the ten mos t common injuries in each age-group. Finally, we analyzed short-term a nd long-term trends to determine if changes in equipment had had an ef fect on the frequency or pattern of injury. From the 1981-1982 to the 1993-1994 season, there were 2.79 injuries per 1000 skier days: 4.27 i njuries in children, 2.93 in adolescents, and 2.69 in adults. During t he last eight years of the study, the most common injuries were a cont usion of the knee in children, a sprain of the ulnar collateral ligame nt of the thumb in adolescents, and a grade-III sprain of the anterior cruciate ligament in adults. The short-term trends revealed that, in children, the frequency of tibial fractures decreased 10 per cent whil e that of fractures of the upper extremity increased 8 per cent. The l ong-term trends showed that, in adults, the rate of tibial fractures d ecreased 89 per cent while that of injuries of the anterior cruciate l igament increased 280 per cent. The overall rate of injury decreased 4 3 per cent from the beginning of the study in 1972 to the end of the s tudy in 1994; the decrease was 58 per cent in children, 45 per cent in adolescents, and 42 per cent in adults. Data on the types of equipmen t and the binding-release values were collected prospectively from inj ured skiers and from 2083 non-injured skiers. Of the fifty-nine skiers who sustained a spiral fracture of the tibia, forty-two (71 per cent) had binding-release values that were higher than the average for the uninjured group. We believe that the use of properly functioning moder n equipment will decrease the rate of injury, particularly in children .