To the Editor: Snowboarding is increasing in popularity, but Australian snowboarders have been shown to have 2.4 times as many fractures as skiers, with 35% of upper limb injuries being fractures.1 The most common site of injury is the wrist, accounting for 21.6% of all snowboarding injuries.2 It has been suggested that the use of wrist guards could reduce the risk of injury, particularly as snowboarding injuries tend to be impactive rather than torsional.3,4 However, concern has been raised that use of wrist guards will redistribute the impact of the force to more proximal areas of the arm, causing elbow injuries.5
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- 1 Mansfield Medical Clinic, Mansfield, VIC.
- 2 School of Population Health, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA.
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- 3. Pino EC, Colville MR. Snowboard injuries. Am J Sports Med 1989; 17: 778-781.
- 4. Russell K, Hagel B, Francescutti LH. The effect of wrist guards on wrist and arm injuries among snowboarders: a systematic review. Clin J Sport Med 2007; 17: 145-150.
- 5. Hagel B, Pless IB, Goulet C. The effect of wrist guard use on upper-extremity injuries in snowboarders. Am J Epidemiol 2005; 162: 149-156.