Austrian researchers found that teenagers who donned wrist guards while snowboarding were less likely than their unprotected peers to sustain serious wrist fractures.

Among 342 students assigned to wear the guards, only one ended up with a broken wrist. And this injured snowboarder was among the dozen students who "secretly discarded" their wrist protectors during the study.

Wrist injuries account for up to half of serious snowboarding injuries, the report indicates. Some studies have suggested wrist protectors help reduce the risk, but others have shown some guards could actually backfire and make the hand and fingers more vulnerable to injury.

The disparity, according to the researchers, may have to do with design. In their study, students wore a specially designed wrist guard that provided support from the palm up to about the middle of the forearm, while allowing flexibility in the hand. The students' injury rates were followed during "winter sports vacation," a standard part of the Austrian school curriculum.

Overall, one of the 342 students assigned to wear a wrist guard suffered a serious wrist fracture, compared with 9 of 379 snowboarders not given the protective device. Experience, too, reduced the snowboarders' wrist injury risk, the investigators found. In fact, they report, experience offered more protection than the wrist guards.

Journal of Trauma March 2002;52:517-520

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Just like rollerblading (inline skating), wearing wrist protection would be a wise idea, especially for novices. Surprisingly the article doesn't mention that wearing helmets is probably far more important. When I was in medical school I broke my wrist while I was running from my apartment to school one morning to take my biochemistry final. It has just snowed and I slipped and fell on some ice when I was taking a corner. I broke one of my metacarpal bones that took about six months to heal. The only problem is that I had to wear a cast for many months. That is nothing compared to not wearing a helmet and suffering brain injury that may never heal.