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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Injuries following skiing and snowboarding accidents lead to an estimated 7,000 hospital admissions annually and present a significant burden to the health care system. The epidemiology, injury patterns, hospital resource utilization, and outcomes associated with these severe injuries need further characterization.
METHODS: The National Trauma Data Bank was queried for the period 2007-2014 for admissions with injury severity score (ISS) >15 and ICD-9 codes 885.3 (fall from skis, n=1,353) and 885.4 (fall from snowboard, n=1,216). Demographics, emergency department data, diagnosis and procedure codes, and outcomes were abstracted from the database.
RESULTS: Severe (ISS > 15) ski- and snowboard-associated injuries differed with respect to age distribution (median age [IQR]: 38 [19-59] for skiers and 20 [16-25] for snowboarders, p < 0.001) and gender (78.9% and 86.4% males respectively, p < 0.001). TBI was common for both sports (56.8% of skiers vs. 46.6% of snowboarders, p < 0.001). Injuries to the spine (28.9%), chest (37.6%), and abdomen (35.0%) were also common. 80% of patients utilized EMS services (50% ambulance, 30% helicopter) with a median EMS transport time of 84 minutes. 50.8% of patients required inter-hospital transport. 43.2% of injuries required surgical intervention (21.3% orthopedic, 12.5% neurosurgical, 10.5% thoracic, 7.8% abdominal). Hospital length of stay (LOS) was 6.5 days. 60.0% of patients required ICU admission with mean ICU LOS 5.0 days. Overall mortality was 4.0% for skiers and 1.9% for snowboarders.
CONCLUSION: Severe injuries following ski and snowboard accidents are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Differences in injury patterns, risk factors for severe injury, and resource utilization require further study. Increased resource allocation to alpine trauma systems is warranted. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Prognostic/epidemiologic study, level III.
Language: en |