Bilateral simultaneous bony skier’s thumb. A case report.

Abstract

Injuries of the thumb during winter sport activities usually occur amongst skiers, followed by snowboarders. Rupture of the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) is most common injury, as a result of fall or an entrapment of the hand in a ski pole. We present a simultaneous bilateral bony rupture of the thumb UCL in a female recreational snowboarder, sustained after a simple fall during a snow ride. Surgical intervention with open reduction and stabilization with 1 mm Kirschner wires was performed at one time on both hands by the same orthopedic surgeon. A thumb plaster cast was applied for protection on either thumb. K-wires and the thumb cast were retained for a period of 4 weeks. The patient regained full function of her thumbs at 6 months postoperatively.