Hobbies Up Bike Spinal Injury Risk

High speed, vertical trajectory extreme terrain and long may make the sport of mountain bike mountain bikers aka riskier than football, diving or cheerleading. Mountain bike riders more at risk of spinal disorders.
These findings warn that using the two-wheeled vehicle on a dangerous path is very risky to the spine. One of the six cases considered serious enough to cause severe paralysis.
"People need to know that mountain biking activities that they choose to have a unique and specific risks," said Dr. Marcel Dvorak, University of British Columbia in Canada, as reported from Health24, Tuesday (08/06/2010).
Previous research has explained about the various injuries suffered by mountain bike riders. But no one has ever evaluated the specific risk of spinal injuries in mountain bikers.
Patients average age was 33 years, and of these only two riders who do it for recreational purposes. These findings have been reported in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.
The research team was able to calculate the risk of injury to the spine on the mountain bikers. But the researchers speculate that during the study period of 13 years, the annual figure showed an incidence of 500,000 in British Columbia. 4 percent of patients with spinal cord injury.
Two-thirds of mountain bikers need surgery. In fact, 40 percent suffered the worst injuries, ie spinal cord injury. And of that number, more than 40 percent suffered total paralysis.
"Broken wrist and the face is the most common. But more severe spinal cord injuries, with long-term consequences are deeper," Dvorak added.
According to him, most of the cyclists were injured due to loss of control over the handlebars of a bicycle or a precipitous fall from a height of Yeng. Of the two cases, often resulting in serious impacts to the head that trigger trauma in the neck and spine.
Surprisingly, researchers found no association between wearing helmets and severity of injuries suffered by bikers. "Helmets can prevent injury to the head, but can not protect your neck," said Dvorak.
Moreover, this unique exercise conducted in the field is really difficult to reach by medical personnel, such as in the jungle or remote mountain areas.
As a result when an accident, an ambulance or even helicopter would be difficult to access area so that takes a long time to be able to help these bikers.