In reply to Bootrock:
> That is a fantastic post, cheers for that. What was the essay on?
Essay was on Mechanism/ patterns of injury, we had to choose a sport of our choice to write about, so obviously I chose climbing. I tried to answer the OP about " it's got me pondering what injuries you're most likely to treat as a climber" as best I could before the thread descended into the usual bickering about types of bandages and CPR being the be all and end all of first aid training!!
Obviously my essay (and therefore the references i posted) only looked at traumatic emergencies in the mountains, so it would require a few different links to answer that question including medical emergencies you might encounter whilst climbing.
The main conclusions from the essay were, largely obvious:
Half of all climbers sustain an injury within a 12 month period, the majority of which will be chronic overuse injuries or upper limb injuries from a single strenuous activity.
Only 10% of climbing injuries are caused by falls, but falls account for 75% to 95% of climbing injuries presenting to the emergency department. 15% of falls result in serious injury, 6-7% of falls are fatal.
You will generally hit the ground/ rock feet first, therefore injuries will generally follow a feet up pattern. The common sites of injuries were lower extremity (30-46%), head (12-17%), spinal (13-14%) and trunk (12%), with upper extremity injuries only accounting for as little as 3% of trauma in these patients. Fractures made up 29% of injuries, sprains, and strains a further 29% followed by lacerations (17%); soft tissue injuries (17%); and dislocations (4.3%).
Ice climbing/ Alpine climbing is more dangerous than rock climbing.
The most frequently occurring head injuries that require hospitalisation are caused by rocks/ice falling on climbers, rather than climbers falling on rock/ice.