Injuries in Swedish skydiving

Abstract

Objective: To create a basis for prevention of modern skydiving injuries. Design: Descriptive epidemiological study. Setting: National total material. Patients: Data on all reported injury events (n = 257) in Swedish skydiving 1999-2003 (total 539 885 jumps) were retrieved from the Swedish Parachute Association. Non-fatally injured skydivers were sent a questionnaire asking for event and injury details (response rate 89%), and supplementary hospital records were retrieved for the most serious injuries (n = 85). Human, equipment and environmental factors were assessed for risk. Main Outcome Measurements: Frequency and severity of injuries. Results: Incidence of non-fatal injury events was 48 per 100 000 jumps. The lower extremities, spine and shoulders were important regions of injury. The most serious injuries were experienced by licensed skydivers, but students in training had a higher injury rate and more often left the sport because of the injury. Of two student-training systems, one had an incidence less than half that of the other. Conclusions: A basis for prevention was created, showing a potential for reduction of frequency and severity of injuries with training and technical interventions.

Spinal cord injuries among paragliders in Norway

“…1,3,7 Landing at high speed on straight feet or crashing on the buttocks puts the thoracolumbal junction of the spine at risk for fractures caused by high energy. Similar injuries have been reported among skydivers and among snowboarders 8,9 indicating that this type of extreme sport increases the risk of spine injuries. Among skydivers and snowboarders, approximately onethird of the SCIs occur in the cervical or upper thoracic level.…”

“…Among skydivers and snowboarders, approximately onethird of the SCIs occur in the cervical or upper thoracic level. 8,9 In contrast to these and to epidemiological data on SCI in Norway, paragliding injuries are more homogeneous, as serious neck and head trauma is rare, indicating that the spinal cord and spine are at high risk due to vertical highenergy force evoked toward the spine due to the paraglider's fixed body position. 1,3,10,11 Demographically, the paragliders with SCIs were similar to those in the general population of Norway, with clear male predominance.…”

Incidents and Injuries in Foot-Launched Flying Extreme Sports

“…This may be due to the fact that in hang gliding the pilot is in a prone position in the harness (https://www.bhpa.co.uk/sport/hang_glider/ 4 ), making upper limbs the most liable to injury in the event of impact, while in paragliding the pilot is in a standing or sitting position (https://www.bhpa.co.uk/sport/paraglider/ 4 ), directly exposing the lower limbs to injury in the event of a fall 29 . The distribution of injuries in paragliding is similar to that reported in the study on skydiving by Westman et al, in which most of the injuries (51%; n= 160) were to the lower limbs, affecting the leg, the ankle, and the foot in particular 34 . The high percentage of back injuries in paragliding observed in this study (18.7%; n=195) is also consistent with results from previous studies 15,28,30 .…”

LAD dissection following parachute belt trauma during BASE jumping

“…Failure of parachute opening leads to polytraumatic death. In contrast to skydiving [6], isolated chest trauma, due to thorax compression from the harness during parachute opening, is not described among BASE jumpers in the aforementioned reports [4,5]. Nevertheless, BASE jump parachutes are specifically designed to open quicker than skydiving parachutes, and therefore could cause blunt chest trauma as well, leading to a further potential mechanism by which BASE jumping may become potentially fatal.…”