[Inline skating, an old sport, newly discovered: harmless or a potential danger with socioeconomic effects?]

Over a period of one year, all accidents associated with in-line skating (ILS) were surveyed. Sport-specific data was recorded with a standardized questionnaire. The study comprised 66 patients with 75 injuries (48 upper limb, 16 skull, eight lower limb, three trunk). We were looking after 42 male and 24 female patients with an average age of 20 years (5-53 years). Twenty-seven patients (40%) had to be treated as inpatients. Overall, the most frequent injury (one third of all injuries) was forearm fracture close to the wrist (21 radius fractures, four radioulnar fractures). It had to be reset in 20 cases. Additional internal fixation was required in 10 cases (Kirschner wire osteosynthesis, intramedullary nailing or plate osteosynthesis). Only five patients could be treated with plaster cast fixation alone. Most patients with injuries in the vicinity of the wrist were not wearing a wrist protector at the time of the accident. The most frequent reasons given for not wearing protectors was forgetfulness or the high price of protectors. However, there were also two distal radius fractures and a disc injury in the wrist in patients who had been wearing wrist protectors. In most cases, ILS accidents lead to appreciable damage requiring a healing period of several weeks to months (average period of loss of work 41 days). The bfu (advisory center for accident prevention) reckons with 60,000 ILS cases annually in Switzerland. These injuries are thus of great socioeconomic importance. In the future, better risk behavior must be achieved by informing the population (wearing protectors, especially for the wrist and head, attendance of training courses).