How To Handle After Skiing Injury

How To Handle After Skiing Injury——Quick Read Guide
While skiing, you can experience injuries of varying degrees and types, hypothermia, frostbite, eye injuries, skin injuries, bone injuries, muscle injuries, ear injuries, joint and ligament injuries. Know how to deal with emergencies and be able to take timely measures when an accident occurs.

Skiing is a fun and dangerous sport, so please read the beginner’s ski guide thoroughly before skiing. Crashes and falls are an inevitable part of skiing. As a result, the majority of typical skiing injuries are sprains or fractures. This article shares common emergency treatments to alleviate injuries as quickly as possible and avoid irreversible damage if rescue teams are unavailable or unreachable.

Article Catalog

1Hypothermia & Frostbite

7Joint and Ligament Injuries

8Conclusion

9FAQ

10Extended Reading

Hypothermia & Frostbite

Only when the temperature is controlled at or below 0°C, the natural or artificial snow of the snow park can be guaranteed not to melt. The temperature is too low, the most likely injury in the ski resort is hypothermia and frostbite.

The normal body temperature of the human body should be maintained between 36℃ and 37℃, if the body temperature drops below 35℃, it may cause serious damage to body functions.

In addition, frostbite is highly likely to occur on parts that are exposed for long periods of time, such as the ears, nose, cheeks, hands or feet AFTER snow boots into the snow.

Symptoms: Cold and pale skin, slow and sometimes irregular pulse, visual disturbances, difficulty seeing clearly or double vision, drowsiness or brief unconsciousness are all signs of hypothermia.

White skin and a numb and painless feeling are precursors to frostbite. Frostbite usually affects the fingertips, toes, ears, nose, cheeks and chin, where the blood circulation at the end of the blood vessels is the worst. When you feel localized subcutaneous swelling, press down and feel a hard lump, whitish followed by purple, then it is deep frostbite.

Measures: To deal with hypothermia casualties, you should immediately transfer the position of the injured, replace the wet clothing, use warm down or space cotton wrapped to keep warm, supplemented by hot sweet drinks. Never forcefully encourage the casualty to make movements or use rubbing to raise the body temperature, nor should you relieve the feeling of cold by drinking alcohol. Once found unconscious, the person should be immediately taken to a hospital for resuscitation.

The occurrence of frostbite, but also immediately leave the low-temperature site, replace the wet clothing, shoes and socks, you can use 40 ℃ warm water soaked frostbite parts, with down, space cotton material to keep warm. Can not use the method of rubbing to promote frostbite in parts of the blood circulation, and soak the water temperature can not be too high, with special attention to not immediately baking fire.

Eye injury

A complete ski equipment must need a ski glasses. Advanced skiers dealing with cold wind must need this tool, and if there is no sunlight, the reflection of the snow is very strong, the eyes are naked, extremely easy to snow blindness. If the weather is clear, within a few hours the symptoms of snow blindness will be very obvious, corneal damage, affecting the normal function of vision. In addition, AFTER the fall, if there are hard objects poking into the eye area, professional ski goggles can also play a protective role.

Symptoms: In milder cases of snow blindness, the eyes may feel itchy and painful, the eyeballs are red, like grains of sand have entered the eyes, photophobia and frequent tears. The same symptoms may also occur if a foreign object enters the eye.

Measures: Never rub your eyes with your hands, but pull up your upper eyelid to check for foreign objects in your eyes and to make sure there are no cuts on your eyeballs. In the absence of a cut, wash the eye with pure water or eye drops, then cover the eye with soft medical cotton gauze and rest with the eye closed. Try to avoid all kinds of stimulation, use the eye less, wear sunglasses to reduce visual brightness, and the symptoms will disappear automatically in about 5 to 7 days.

Skin damage

The skin also possesses nerves, blood vessels, pigment cells and glands, and the bare skin is the first site of injury in sports. Blisters, calluses and abrasions usually occur on the epidermis of the skin, lacerations may occur in the dermis, and blood bruises and hematomas occur in the subcutaneous layer.

Abrasions and lacerations

Symptoms: The skin epidermis is scraped, AFTER breaking the skin oozing blood or tissue fluid, the wound has a burning sensation for abrasion; the skin is struck by sharp objects, hurting the soft tissue under the skin to open the mouth, hurting the dermis is laceration.

Measures: use sterile gauze to properly apply pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding, with borax water disinfection is the best, or have saline instead also, immediately clean the wound, and then apply anti-inflammatory ointment or purple ointment, without gauze coverage. The face’s ‘scrapes are best cleaned every two hours to prevent infection from leaving traces. The weather is so cold that you should also keep the injured area warm to prevent frostbite.

Lacerations can be treated in the same way. If the wound is deep to the subcutaneous fat and muscle, it should be sent to the hospital immediately for stitching.

Petechiae and hematomas

Symptoms: Blood leaks out of the blood vessels and enters the skin and mucous membranes, where it settles under the skin and takes on a purplish color, becoming a stasis of blood, causing inflammation of the muscle tissue, swelling of the injured area, and pain when pressed. Hematoma is caused by blood leaking out of the blood vessels and not entering the skin or mucous membranes but accumulating in one place, resulting in swelling, sometimes very serious, and having to use the method of extracting some of the blood stasis to relieve pain.

Measures: Ice can be used to stop bleeding and reduce inflammation, AFTER which certain cells in the body will automatically remove these blood stains and the injury will gradually turn from purple-red to yellow-green. AFTER 3 days, hot compresses and massage can be used to relieve the pain, which will slowly disappear in 5 to 7 days without any major problems.

Sports friction injuries

Symptoms: Ski boots rented at the snow park are not suitable, and the feet will develop blisters. The epidermis undergoes a long period of friction and pressure, creating a gap between the epidermis and the dermis. The blood supply cannot keep up, easily causing local cell necrosis when the tissue fluid takes the opportunity to enter, resulting in the formation of blisters. Feel the stinging pain, serious blisters will also be filled with blood.

Measures: Immediately change shoes that do not fit your feet. If the blister is not large, wait for it to die out on its own; AFTER 24 hours, the basic pain is not strong. If the blister is very large and affects normal action, you can consider first disinfecting the blister with antiseptic drugs, then using a sterilized scalpel to cut a small opening in the blister bulge, press out the fluid with cotton gauze, then smear anti-infective drugs and cover with gauze.

Bone injury

Our bones are susceptible to fractures due to a lack of exercise or inadequate nutritional supply, which can make them weak or tough, and are susceptible to fractures when they are subjected to a strong external impact or weight load during exercise that exceeds their own mechanical tolerance range. Sudden fractures are also caused by the inability to withstand external blows and result in fractures or breaks in the flesh and bones; usually more women than men are injured, and more occur in elderly people because of bone atrophy or osteoporosis.

Usually, bone injuries in sports occur mostly in the lower limb bones because they need to bear the weight of the body. The humerus, tibia, tarsus, femur, and fibula are most likely to be injured, and the spinal bones, which control balance, are also prone to injury, and skeletal injuries account for more than 10% of sports injuries.

Symptoms: A minor bone fracture may not be taken seriously at the beginning, but AFTER 2 to 3 weeks the pain is found to remain, the swelling of soft tissues is not obvious, and the pain is felt to be intense during exercise.

Measures: In addition to the usual nutritious foods rich in calcium that should be eaten, daily exercise is essential to gradually enhance the thickness and density of the bones so they can better resist external impact. Once a fracture occurs, the injured person should be laid flat immediately and should not be moved blindly, let alone massaged or pulled, because the fractured bone is likely to damage the surrounding blood vessels and cause blood stasis and edema, further increasing medical difficulty. AFTER checking the location of the injury, immediately use wooden sticks, boards and elastic bandages to fix the injured part, learn simple bandages, do timely hemostasis and fixation treatment, and immediately send them to the hospital to prevent the cracked part from being easily reunited.

Muscle injuries

The most likely muscle injury that occurs when you enter the sport immediately before the warm-up preparations are done is muscle cramps caused by excitement due to the cold. AFTER entering the ski slope, one should not immediately run to the run, but patiently and carefully do a few stretches, targeted at the parts that are about to be fully activated by the force, so that they are more flexible in the movement, to facilitate the sensitive dominance. In addition, because the exercise time is too long, when muscle fatigue occurs, lactic acid is constantly produced, which also stimulates muscle spasm. Do not panic when you encounter a spasm, just gently try to pull the injured muscle in the opposite direction to make it elongated, and the pain will be relieved.

Broken muscle fibers or bleeding due to improper force or external violent impact are also common injuries. The quadriceps (anterior thigh), biceps, and gastrocnemius (calf) are the most susceptible to muscle strains.

Symptoms: If the muscle is completely broken and the injury is depressed while the ends are protruding, it will not feel painful at this time. Rest immediately, and AFTER professional muscle recovery exercises, surgery is not required. If the strain causes blood to flow out and accumulate in the mucosal layer, it will feel painful and take longer to recover.

Measures: muscle injuries to rest immediately, with ice to reduce swelling, and elevate the affected area, ski resorts to pay special attention to be frostbite, ice time to be short. Generally, AFTER 2 days, AFTER the pain is not strong, you can slightly carry out simple activities, consider hot compresses and massage to promote blood circulation and absorption of hematoma. 5 days later, gradually increase the exercise of the damaged muscle, do not exercise too much to do it a second time, slowly let its range of motion extend back to normal.

Ear injury

It is common to fall when you have just gone to practice on the piste, and any impact or blow to the ear may cause damage to the outer and inner ears. If it is a traumatic injury, first aid should be administered immediately. If it is an injury to the eardrum or fluid coming out of the ear, it should be taken to the hospital immediately for treatment.

Symptoms: Redness and swelling occur in the part of the ear that has been struck, cut, or torn by a sharp object. The most dangerous ones are fluid coming out of the ear or a feeling of loss of hearing, both of which should be taken to the hospital immediately.

Measures: Because ordinary trauma is relatively easy to treat because the snow field temperature is low, the use of ice should be careful not to cause further frostbite. Those with wounds should first be disinfected with borax, the position of the laceration set,, and then wrapped with sterile gauze and bandages. If there is fluid coming out of the ear, never use cotton balls or gauze to plug the ear canal, and go to the hospital immediately for treatment.

Joint and Ligament Injuries

The most likely locations for joint dislocations are the shoulder, elbow, knee, and ankle joints, which are usually accompanied by strained ligaments. Skiing with crooked feet or sprained knees is very common, followed by elbow and shoulder injuries due to falls, which should be treated promptly to restore the joint to its original position.

Symptom: The joint is impacted or force is exerted in the wrong direction, forcing the joint out of position and accompanied by nearby ligaments that are torn, deformed, or twisted, causing redness, swelling, and pain in the injured area.

Measures: The first step is to determine whether the sprain is a simple ligament sprain or is accompanied by a fracture or dislocation. A simple ligament injury is divided into mild and severe injuries according to the degree; the so-called severe ligament injury refers to the loss of ligament function, complete rupture, and an abnormally loose joint; this situation requires surgery to reconnect the ligament to the hospital. Mild injuries will heal immediately with 3–5 weeks of rest.

If the joint is dislocated, it is good if it can reset itself to a mild range of motion. Immediately fix the injury so that it can be fully restored to its original position, and use ice to reduce inflammation for the first 3 days, followed by hot compresses AFTERwards.

Conclusion

Before each ski trip, it is recommended that you do a good job of safety and protection, including wearing ski clothes and ski equipment, traveling with more than one person, and remembering the contact information of the snow rescue team. If your partner is unfortunately injured, stick your snowboard in an X on the snow and notify the rescue team.

Before the Rescue team arrives, the partners should do a good job together to clear the snow, minimize the movement of the injured, and wait for the professional staff to come to the Rescue.

FAQ

How do you recover from a ski injury?

Periodic ice treatment can Help a minor sprain, as well as taking painkiller medication.

What is the most common injury from Skiing?

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture or sprain.
Medial collateral ligament (MCL) rupture or sprain.
Shoulder sprains, fractures and dislocations.
Wrist and thumb fractures.
Head injuries, whiplash and concussion.
Torn rotator cuff.

Is Skiing yourself easy to injure?

Skiing is a high-intensity sports, there is a certain degree of danger, learning to ski and when skiing will be injured is inevitable, we can reduce the damage suffered through the protection of ski equipment.