Impact of alcohol consumption on winter sports-related injuries.

INTRODUCTION: This study was carried out to evaluate data about trauma-related winter sports, including risk factors such as high speed, gender, age, alcohol consumption, details about the accident and snow conditions. METHODS: A retrospective review was conducted to determine the injury patterns and crash circumstances in holiday skiers and snowboarders. The data recorded were obtained from the database of the Pre-Hospital Emergency Registry of six skiing areas in the Dolomite mountains during the winter seasons November 2004-May 2009, injury data for major traumas from Ski Patrol Injury reports (helicopter, ambulance or ski slopes' patrol reports), and intrahospital Emergency Department data. Alcohol concentration in blood was detected in 200 individuals suffering from major trauma. RESULTS: A total of 4550 injured patients, predominantly male (69%), mean age 22 years (range 16-72), were included in the observational analysis. Knee, wrist and shoulder injuries were frequently associated with major thoracic, abdominal or head traumas (64% of cases). Suboptimal technical level, high speed, low concentration, snow or weather conditions, faulty equipment and protective devices were among the various causes of accidents. The analysis revealed that high alcohol blood concentration was present in 43% of 200 patients. CONCLUSIONS: Even though the major causes of accidents were excessive speed, excessive fatigue, technical errors and bad weather conditions, alcohol abuse was often discovered. Random sampling and a non-systematic detection of alcohol blood levels likely led to an underestimation of alcohol consumption-related injuries. It is recommended that investigations into alcoholic intoxication in injured skiers should be carried out on a large scale.

Cutaneous nerve lesions of the shoulder and arm after arthroscopic shoulder surgery.

Increasing use of shoulder arthroscopy has caused developing awareness of the associated complications. A consecutive series of patients who had undergone arthroscopic surgery of the shoulder was reviewed. The overall incidence of a sensory deficit was 21 (7%) in 304 patients at 2 weeks after operation, and in approximately half (3.3%) of these patients this condition was still present at 8 months' average follow-up. These deficits fell into three distinct patterns, suggesting that damage was occurring to three different nerve branches. Most of these areas of hypesthesia corresponded to lesions of cutaneous branches of the axillary nerve; the most likely cause was direct injury at the portal sites, particularly the lateral portal.

[Comparison of vectorcardiography and echocardiography in the evaluation of the site and extent of necrosis in myocardial infarction without Q wave]. / Confrontation vectocardiographie-échocardiographie dans l'évaluation du siège et de l'étendue de la nécrose dans les infarctus myocardiques sans onde Q.

In order to improve the evaluation of the site and extent of the necrosis in acute myocardial infarction without Q wave (IMNQ), we used a multiparametric method taking into account the enzymatic values of the total CK, a score derived from Frank's VCG and a kinetic score of the VG segments estimated by echo-2D. The literature data have shown, according to the clinical and anatomical correlations, the frequency of the transmural lesions in the IMNQ cases and, on the contrary, of the lesions limited to the endocardial region and partially transmural in infarctions with new pathological Q waves. The heterogeneousness of the anatomo-pathological data can be explained by the mechanisms of the ischaemia, the site of the coronary occlusion, the presence or not of a spasm, the compensation by the collateral flux and eventually the effects of a treatment by fibrinolytic drugs.