Friday, June 29

Wrist Guards Prevent Many Snowboarding Injuries

Business Wire

KEYSTONE, Colo., June 28 -- Off-the-shelf wrist guards significantly reduce wrist injuries for novices, as well as experienced competitors, and should be considered standard equipment, according to Daniel F. O'Neill, M.D., and Mark R. McGlone, A.T.C., from the New Hampshire Knee Center in Plymouth.

The study was released at the 27th Annual Meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine in Keystone, Colo., Thursday, June 28-July 1, 2001.

In the first-ever randomized-controlled study evaluating snowboard-related wrist-fracture injuries, the researchers studied 2,355 first-time snowboarders. During two ski seasons, the researchers randomly selected 551 snowboarders enrolled in a beginning snowboarding class to wear a commercially available wrist brace designed for in-line skating; 1,804 control subjects did not use a brace.

The snowboarders who wore the wrist guards did not sustain any wrist, hand, elbow or shoulder injuries. Among the non-guarded snowboarders, the researchers found 40 wrist injuries, including 22 (55 percent) sprains and 18 (45 percent) fractures.

"We recommend that wrist guards be made available to all snowboarders renting equipment and encourage them to be worn by all participants regardless of level of expertise," the authors advise.

"Wrist guards are especially helpful for the guys doing the tricks. Competitive snowboarders may still sustain some injuries because the things that they are doing are so wild," explained Dr. O'Neill in a separate interview. "Some people are wrongly concerned that supporting the wrists will force the impact of the injury to travel to the elbows and shoulders creating problems there. We did not see that in our research. The forces do have to go somewhere, but the bigger joints tend to be stronger and to have more muscle supporting them."

The authors note the increasing popularity of snowboarding has resulted in a growing incidence of snowboard-related injuries, especially wrist sprains and fractures. Snowboarding is an upper-extremity sport by nature because participants must use their hands and arms to balance and execute maneuvers. Beginners mainly use their hands to break the frequent falls associated with mastering the sport.

Helmets are now socially accepted by both competitive snowboarders and skiers and are being worn voluntarily at all levels of competition. The researchers say that with proper publicity and education snowboarders will also utilize wrist braces.

In a separate interview, Dr. O'Neill discussed his personal experience with wrist guards and his hope that wrist guards will become standard protection: "Our study clearly showed that the wrist braces designed for in- line skating can really make a difference. I tried the wrist guards the first time I went snowboarding and I was really glad I was wearing them."

"It was amazing to me how many people were saying negative things about snowboarding with wrist guards. They did not think people would use them and they were afraid they might encourage people to attempt stunts beyond their ability. It was a repeat of the nay saying for kids wearing helmets while skiing. Now you look down the run and all you see are little helmets," he rejoiced. "I highly recommend wrist guards for competitive snowboarding. I hear that out west the more aggressive riders are starting to wear the guards."

The New Hampshire Knee Center in Plymouth is one of the clinics for the U.S. Ski Team.