Thumb injuries in downhill skiing.

Thumb injuries are next to knee injuries the most common injury in downhill skiing today. In this material they constituted 17% of all skiing injuries. Three-fourths of the thumb injuries were lesions of the ulnar collateral ligament of the metacarpophalangeal joint. Compared to a control population consisting of 1619 randomly chosen uninjured skiers, we found that no type of ski pole handle in common use today eliminated the risk of thumb injury, but the injury frequency was higher when using a ski pole with a big plate on the top of the handle. It was, however, of no importance how the skier gripped the ski pole in relation to the strap. It is suggested that the skier during a fall holds on to the ski pole until the very last moment before the hand hits the ground. The ski pole handle then remains in the hand and constitutes the hypomochlium that forces the thumb into abduction and extension, which causes the typical ulnar collateral ligament injury.