Traumatic paraplegia in snowboarders

Study Design. Patients with traumatic paraplegia resulting from snowboardin g accidents were reviewed. Objective. To understand the clinical features and mechanisms of paraplegic snowboarding injuries. Summary of Background Data. The recent explosion in the popularity of snowb oarding has resulted in dramatically increased numbers of snowboarding inju ries. However, little information is available as to the types and mechanis ms of snowboard-related spinal injuries and their neurologic involvement. Methods. The subjects of this study were six male patients, with an average age of 23.7 years, referred to the authors' institution for neurologic def icits associated with spinal injuries between January 1996 and March 1999. The clinical features of these patients were reviewed with respect to the m echanism of the injury, fracture pattern, neurologic status, treatment, and clinical outcome. The mean follow-up period was 23.7 months. Results. The six snowboarders with traumatic paraplegia constituted a very homogenous group with the following features: They were all young men betwe en the ages of 23 and 25 years. All the injuries had occurred at the verteb ral junctions. The primary mechanism of the fractures was a backward fall f rom an intentional jump. The fracture patterns were of the flexion-distract ion type. These homologous features suggest that this snowboarding group is at high risk for severe spinal injury. Conclusion. The high risk of traumatic paraplegia for a group within the sn owboarding population requires the development and provision of injury prev ention strategies specific to this group.