The National
Spinal Cord
Injury Association

Disability in the News Archive

Snowboarders At Risk Of Spinal Cord Injury

By Laszlo Dosa
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) -- Snowboarders are four times as likely as skiers to injure or break their spine, according to a report presented Thursday at the 65th annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Dr. Fadi Tarazi of the University of British Columbia -- himself a skier -- collected data on injuries suffered by skiers and snowboarders at two resorts in Vancouver, Canada, over a 1,000-day period. Thirty-four skiers and 22 snowboarders sustained spinal fractures and/or a neurological deficit during that time.

Most of the skiers and snowboarders experienced burst-type fractures of their vertebrae, a type of fracture that disperses multiple bone fragments. Eight of the skiers and two of the snowboarders also suffered injury to the spinal cord.

The primary cause of the injuries was jumping, with 77% of snowboarders and 20% of skiers injured while jumping. "And snowboarders are skiing while jumping," Tarazi told Reuters. "They put an axial load on the spine and cause burst fractures."

While the study did not include a follow-up, Tarazi expects the patients will do well because none of them had severe spinal cord injuries. Most of them did not need surgeries and their broken bones were treated with braces.

Tarazi recognizes that because snowboarding "seems to be equal to jumping these days" injuries are difficult to avoid.

"When we see people jumping from large heights, we have to suspect cord injuries," he concluded.

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