[Vascular injuries during skiing]

Traumatic lesions of blood vessels occur only rarely in skiing, they are, however, mostly very dramatic events which may lead to the loss of an extremity. Relatively simple measures of diagnosis and therapy may save the skier's threatened life and extremity. Some of these are: Realization that a vascular trauma has occurred, tight pressure bandage, bringing the patient into shock-position, immediate transport by helicopter to a medical center with surgeons trained in vascular surgery.