Sprains, strains, dislocations and fractures were common but also concussions and other head injuries. In fact, head injuries make up 20% of the roughly 600,000 ski- and snowboarding-related injuries that occur annually across North America, according to a study published in The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. “Certainly, we worry the most about head injuries,” said Dr. Brian Cole, an orthopedic surgeon at Chicago’s Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush. “You’re less likely to have a catastrophic ligament tear or fracture this way.”Common injuries by age and sexSome winter sports injuries are more common in people of a certain sex or age. Cole sees a lot of sledding injuries in his younger patients, snowmobiling injuries in middle-aged men and downhill skiing injuries in women, especially torn ACLs in the knee.

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