Ice and snow sports are unprecedentedly popular How to enjoy ice and snow sports without injury?

Text/Zhao Fangdi

After this year's Beijing Winter Olympics, everyone's enthusiasm for ice and snow sports is unprecedented, and recently there is a paragraph circulating on the Internet: A day of an orthopedic doctor: 9 surgeries, of which 7 are caused by ski injuries. So what factors are likely to cause sports injuries? How to take protective measures to reduce the frequency of injuries? In the live broadcast of "Famous Doctors Face to Face" broadcast on February 24, 2022, Xing Jian, sports rehabilitation therapist of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of Peking University Third Hospital, shared with everyone the knowledge of sports injuries, especially common injuries and preventive measures in ice and snow sports.

Launched by China Business Daily, the column "Face to Face with Famous Doctors" is committed to building a content ecology through the authoritative combination of famous doctors and media, bringing the public health education from chronic disease management, first aid knowledge, prevention and treatment of serious diseases to daily life, and helping the construction of a healthy China.

What are the common sports injuries?

For common sports injuries, Xing Jian said that it can be divided into: 1. 2. Excessive exercise, such as patellar tendonitis caused by long-term mass running, plantar fasciitis; Insufficient exercise, such as long-term desk work, people will have neck, shoulder and back pain; 3. Improper exercise, such as "tennis elbow", tenosynovitis, etc. caused by the irregular or inappropriate movements of some non-professional athletes when they perform clapping exercises; Sports accidents, such as feet in motion, collisions, etc.

Taking the current ice and snow season as an example, there are many types of injuries caused by ice and snow sports, such as falls, bumps, sprains, in addition to multiple injuries, the so-called multiple injuries refer to two or more injuries to the body caused by a causative factor, such as an impact in sports, resulting in fractures and internal organ damage. Xing Jian said that many of the competitions in the Winter Olympics have great risks, such as ice hockey games allowing physical confrontation, athletes making emergency stops and sharp turns on the field, or encountering impacts under high-speed movements, and using upper limb support when falling to the ground... These can all result in fractures of the wrists, elbows, and collarbone. In addition, the steel frame snowmobile is also a dangerous sport, athletes need to lean over the sled, slide in a prone position, the maximum speed can reach 130 ~ 140 km / h. The steel frame snowmobile has no steering and brakes, and the bottom consists of a lead-block weighted skeleton and two fixed tubular steel blades. Due to the extremely fast speed, and head down, there is a little deviation in the high-speed travel, the harm caused by it is extremely high, because of the high danger, the steel frame snowmobile has been removed from the Winter Olympics many times. In addition, ski jumping is also a sport that is more prone to accidental injury, because of the high speed and jumping height, if there is an accident on the ground, injury to the spine will cause high paraplegia, and even life-threatening.

Through consulting literature, Xing Jian found that data from a ski resort in Chongli showed that in the snow season from 2017 to 2018, the average daily injury per 1,000 skiers was 4.53 cases, and in the 2018-2019 snow season, the average daily injury per 1,000 skiers was 4.46 cases. Among them, the injury rate is higher in men than in women, and the 20-30-year-old population is the high-incidence group of injuries, about 36.8%. Among the causes of injury, fall injuries accounted for 76.6%, of which 17.9% of the injured parts were head and neck, and 17.4% of the injured parts were knee joints; with the popularity of ice and snow sports, the number of ice and snow sports people was huge, and the number of injuries would also increase significantly, so Xing Jian stressed that personal protection must be done when carrying out ice and snow activities.

Take precautions in advance

For ski equipment, Xing Jian specifically reminded that ski clothes, helmets, snowshoes, and snowboards should choose better quality products, and in the existing evidence-based medical evidence, ski equipment has a certain effect and role in preventing sports injuries. It is also recommended to have an accident insurance.

In addition to equipment, warm-up exercise is also essential, during the live broadcast, Xing Jian reminded that warm-up exercises such as high leg lifting, squatting, opening and closing jumping can be carried out before the start of the exercise, awakening the muscles and allowing the body to achieve better and more effective force and braking. In addition, Xing Jian also stressed that the ice and snow sports threshold is higher and requires better basic physical fitness, so in the non-snow season, it is necessary to actively exercise and prepare for this set of "protective equipment" of physical fitness.

Accidental injuries, "RICE" principle to help

Surprises are inevitable. Xing Jian said that if it is just a simple bump or sprain, does not affect walking, then you can carry out a simple bandage or local ice pack; if you feel very painful, there is a sprain or ligament injury (such as ankle sprain), you can hold down the most painful part of the ankle for 10 to 15 minutes, because the pain is caused by the vascular damage at the injury site, the blood exudation stimulates the surrounding tissues to produce an inflammatory response (redness, swelling, heat and pain), holding the pain point can reduce bleeding; if the situation is more serious, can not move on its own, you need to wait in place, Seek help.

The principle of RICE can be followed for the emergency treatment of some simple bumps and sprains: R, which stands for rest, means rest and stops moving; I, stands for ice, means ice; C, stands for Compression, means compression, which means compression, which reduces exudation; E, stands for Elegance, means to raise the affected limb slightly above the heart plane ("water" flows low).

The following situations should be highly noted:

After an accident, first of all, we must feel the limbs, whether there is feeling, whether it can move, if you can't feel it, or if the limbs can't move, there may be a problem with the spine, then other people (non-professionals) must not be able to do lifting and pulling during the rescue, move at will, move this action, avoid causing damage again during the second handling, and wait for the professional rescue force of the snow field.

If you hear a body noise at the time of injury, or severe pain, limbs, such as knee joints, ankles, wrists and other bone shape changes, such as misalignment, if these situations occur, you also need to seek professional rescue.

Even if you just feel a little broken, it does not affect walking, you must first stop the movement, observe whether there is swelling and pain in the follow-up, and if the follow-up situation becomes more and more serious, you must also seek medical treatment in time.

Xing Jian specifically mentioned that the most vulnerable parts of snowboarding are the upper limbs and spine, and the most vulnerable parts of skiing are the lower limbs.

Minor injuries are in the line of fire, and recurrent "small" diseases need to be treated

For small conditions in the process of skiing, or some small problems in the body, as long as a skiing attack, Xing Jian in addition to recommending to find a professional coach to improve the technology, but also to find a professional sports injury doctor and therapist to see, from the perspective of functional training to see whether the action force is correct, there is no over-compensated parts, in short, to pay attention to, "small injuries and small diseases" do not pay attention to may leave a big hidden danger.

Do you have to lie down for a hundred days?

For the view of "one hundred days of bone injury", Xing Jian said that this is a very one-sided treatment concept, after the injury occurs, the basic motor ability such as athletic ability, flexibility, coordination ability will be affected, if completely rested, the human body's basic metabolism, consumption is reduced, coupled with the increase in dietary intake, resulting in the accumulation of fat, but will affect the subsequent rehabilitation, so at present, before and after some surgeries, the rehabilitation department will intervene in treatment, to provide patients with rehabilitation programs, to ensure that patients can get systematic rehabilitation training after surgery, In order to prevent the impact of subsequent life and movement.

Xing Jian pointed out that the goal of sports rehabilitation is divided into two dimensions, first, to restore basic daily living skills, and second, to restore the exercise ability before injury. After the injury occurs, if you want to return to the first dimension, conservative estimates are as little as one to two weeks, and as much as three to six months or longer, depending on the injury, previous sports quality, rehabilitation intervention and other aspects. For example, after the cruciate ligament rupture of The Winter Olympic athlete Xu Mengtao, he wants to recover to the second dimension, and the recovery cycle is at least one to one and a half years, or even longer. Therefore, some patients or other family members who are troubled by injuries and illnesses must calm their minds and actively cooperate with the rehabilitation work.

(Proofreader: Zhang Guogang)