Skiing
Sports injuries and diseases of the shoulder
Within the last years skip sport developed explosively. About 200 million people are skiing, worldwide. Most injuries in skiing are happening at the leg followed by the shoulder / arm region. About 0.5 injuries are happening on about 1000 days of skiing. More than 90% of all shoulder injuries in skiing are happening because of a fall. 3% are happening due to a collision with other people and 1% due to a collision with trees and other. Traumata of the knee and ankle joint are dependent on technique like boots and so on. Shoulder injuries are independent of technical factors and are happening due the kind of fall, most of the time. Even in minor shoulder skiing trauma about 30% of all people have still shoulder pain after three years !
Using carving ski the injury rate of the shoulder seems to be higher. At the beginning 90th about 35% of the traumatic lesions occured at the shoulder / neck / arm region and 55% at the lower extremity. Around 2002 / 2003 there was a change: 55% upper lessions and 41% leg traumata. The shorter a ski is the more likely it is, that an injury happens at the shoulder / arm region.
In snowboarding 50% of all injuries happen at the upper extremity. Professional athletes as well as hobby snowboarders are affected nearly the same. The shoulder is the second most affected joint ( after the knee ). Using of protectors seems to reduce the injury risk. Some other studies are claiming a higher injury rate in snowboarding, when wearing protectors for the hand.
In telemarking the is affected in about 20% of all injuries.
Tears of the rotator cuff are observed most ( in about 25% of all shoulder skiing injuries ). Those people suffering from a cuff tear in skiing are on average 10 years older than people with other shoulder lesions. Method of choice is a nonoperative treatment in the beginning. If this doesn´t work, most of the time, an arthroscopic rotator cuff repair will be performed.
As the second most shoulder problem observed, dislocations occur in about 20% of all skiing injuries. Most of them happen to the anterior and inferior direction. A lot of pain and loss of usage property of the shoulder and arm happen. A reposition has to be done at once and afterwards a arthroscopic stabilization procedure will be performed, often.
In about 20% a dislocation of the ac joint happens. Some of the ac dislocations can be treated nonoperatively and some have to be stabilized.
Quite frequently and as a severe injury fractures of the clavicle occur in skiing people. Fortunately fractures of the humeral head happen in only 1% and fractures of the humeral shaft in about 3%.
A SLAP lesion might be responsible for Unknown / Unclear shoulder pain after a ski fall.
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Other themes & sites arround the shoulder:
Diseases of the shoulder ( german ): http://www.schulterinfo.de , http://www.schulter.info
Diseases of the shoulder ( english ): http://www.shoulderinformation.com
Shoulder arthroplasty: http://www.schulterprothesen.net , http://www.schulterprothesen.com , http://www.shoulderprosthesis.com , http://www.prothesenatlas.de
Frozen shoulder ( german ): http://www.schultersteife.de
Shoulder specialists ( german ): http://www.schulterspezialisten.de
Shoulder examination ( german ): http://www.schulteruntersuchung.de
Shoulder videos ( german ): http://www.schultervideo.de