[Typical injuries in snowboarding. Possible prevention strategies]

Due to the specific position on a snowboard, crashes often result in snowboard-specific injuries. As snowboarding nowadays represents a mass sport, treatment of injured snowboarders is becoming common clinical practice. Optimal treatment makes knowledge about snowboard-specific injuries and their underlying mechanisms mandatory. The upper extremities are most frequently affected, with the most frequent injury being the distal radius fracture. Because especially beginners are more often injured, prevention strategies seem to be promising. It was demonstrated that wrist-protection guards are able to decrease the risk of suffering a distal radius fracture. Moreover, use of a helmet was also shown to be protective. Against this background, wearing protective gear such as wrist guards and helmets is strongly recommended to decrease injury severity and frequency.