Upper Extremity Injuries in Snow Skiers - Twelve Years Investigation in Korea

Chung, Duke Whan; Kim, Ki Tack; Kim, Kang Il

Abstract

A retrospective analysis was conducted on ski injury collected in past 12 years, from 1982 to 1995, exception of 1986 and 1987 at the Young Pyeong Ski Resort in Korea. A total of 3,093,667 skiers during the 12 years period are cohort of this investigation. Of 3,093,667 skiers, 7,172 injuries were indexed by anatomic region and severity according to diagnosis on initial evaluation. The frequency of injury changes from 3.4 to 1.5 per 1,000 skier-days during the 12 years. The rate of upper extremity to lower extremity injury increased from 1:1.33 to 1:0.89 during the study period(P<0.005). The most common upper extremity injury pattern was simple injury including laceration and contusion(74.2%). The ulnar collateral ligament injury of thumb make up of 6.5% of all injuries. In conclusion, upper extremity skiing injury was related to 1) Skiers activity level, 2) Skiers skill, 3) Degree of fatigue, 4) Slope condition, 5) Improvement of ski equipment, and 6) Increased skiing population density.