Background: Injuries from skiing and snowboarding became a major challenge for emergency care providers in\r\nSwitzerland. In the alpine setting, early assessment of injury and health status is essential for the initiation of\r\nadequate means of care and transport. Nevertheless, validated standardized protocols for on-slope triage are\r\nmissing. This article can assist in understanding the characteristics of injured winter sportsmen and exigencies for\r\nfuture on-slope triage protocols.\r\nMethods: Six-year review of trauma cases in a tertiary trauma centre. Consecutive inclusion of all injured skiers and\r\nsnowboarders aged >15 (total sample) years with predefined, severe injury to the head, spine, chest, pelvis or\r\nabdomen (study sample) presenting at or being transferred to the study hospital. Descriptive analysis of age,\r\ngender and injury pattern.\r\nResults: Amongst 729 subjects (total sample) injured from skiing or snowboarding, 401 (55%, 54% of skiers and\r\n58% of snowboarders) suffered from isolated limb injury. Amongst the remaining 328 subjects (study sample), the\r\nmajority (78%) presented with monotrauma. In the study sample, injury to the head (52%) and spine (43%) was\r\nmore frequent than injury to the chest (21%), pelvis (8%), and abdomen (5%). The three most frequent injury\r\ncombinations were head/spine (10% of study sample), head/thorax (9%), and spine/thorax (6%). Fisher�s exact test\r\ndemonstrated an association for injury combinations of head/thorax (p < 0.001), head/abdomen (p = 0.019), and\r\nthorax/abdomen (p < 0.001).\r\nConclusion: The data presented and the findings from previous investigations indicate the need for development\r\nof dedicated on-slope triage protocols. Future research must address the validity and practicality of diagnostic onslope\r\ntests for rapid decision making by both professional and lay first responders. Thus, large-scale and detailed\r\ninjury surveillance is the future research priority.
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