Abstract des Autors

The aim of this work was to retrospectively evaluate epidemiological data on 202 snow surfing accidents (214 injuries) recorded at the orthopedics and sports trauma department at the South University Hospital in Grenoble, France, between January 1991 and September 1994; 86% of the accidents occurred in men, mean age 22 years (range 11-51). More than half of them were between 15 and 25 years. Lesions involved the limbs (upper and lower in equal numbers) in 96% of the cases. For the upper limb, there were 104 injuries including 48% of the accidents. Wrist injury predominated with 52 lesions (50% of the upper limb and 24.3% of all injuries). For the lower limb, there were 101 lesions (47% of all injuries). The knee was involved in 44 cases (20.5%) with 38 usually benign sprains. Ankle injuries were also frequent (33, 15.4%), predominantly sprains (21, 9.8%). Fracture of the lower limb and malleolar fractures were seen in 6 an 5.1% of the cases respectively. The epidemiological data on the cause of the accident and the risk factors were also established. Verf.-Referat