Biomechanical effect of in-line skating wrist guards on the prevention of wrist fracture

Abstract

A biomechanical study was conducted in this study to investigate if in-line skating wrist guards can effectively reduce the impact forces so as to protect the wrist from fracture. The forearm specimens with and without wrist guards were dropped using a specially designed sled to simulate the impact on the wrist while falling. A force plate was used to measure the total impact force on the dropping weight whereas a load cell was attached to the proximal end of the specimen and used to quantify the impact transmitted through the wrist joint. From the nondestructive tests, mean peak force measured from a force plate showed no difference between the guarded and unguarded groups whereas mean impulse of the guarded group was significantly greater than that of the unguarded group (p<0.01). Comparing the peak force and impulse measured from the load cell, the peak force of the guarded group was significantly less than that of the unguarded group (p<0.001), while the impulse values were similar. When the specimens were dropped from a higher position (2.5 ft vs. 1 ft), all unguarded specimens had severe wrist fractures whereas fracture was found in three out of 5 guarded specimens. Comparison of mean peak forces and impulses showed a significant difference between the guarded and unguarded groups only in the mean impulse measured from the force plate. These results suggest that the wrist guard may protect the wrist by attenuating the peak force transmitted to radius and ulnar although it may not be effective when the wrist is subjected to an impact sufficiently large to cause fractures.