2023-07-13 07:32:48
On the selfie posted on Instagram, she appears radiant, posing in a bathing suit under the sun exactly, languid on the front beach of a speedboat which spins off the coast of Marseille… What better way to show her followers that she “have fun” in Marseille. And this young influencer does not think so well…
Next to “story” (an ephemeral publication on Instagram) might indeed be much less glamorous. Firstly because she will most certainly end her vacation spread with biafine to relieve her 2nd degree sunburn. But also because she is exposes you to a still unknown risk, which has been on the rise for several summers: fracture of the spine and other vertebral compression caused by shocks received at the front of a boat.
Women are much more exposed
An accident that is not anecdotal: “Since 2018, with the influx of tourists to Marseille, the fashion for boat trips with vacationers who are discovering yachting, more and more people are arriving in the emergency room with this type of trauma. In 2020, following the first confinement, we operated on up to 16 patients in the summer“, explains Pr Stéphane Fuentès. This neurosurgeon from La Timone (Pr Dufour’s department) has just published a study on the phenomenon, the first on this subject, in the Journal of Clinical Medicine. The analysis of a cohort of 79 patients, presenting 90 fractures, makes it possible to identify typical scenarios.First of all, women are much more exposed: 71 cases once morest 18 in men.
So much for the cliché: “in general, they are the ones who sit at the front of the boat.“As for the boat,”they are rigid or semi-rigid motor boats“. Circumstances ? “Often the accident occurs in calm seas. Another boat passes nearby and makes waves. These come to hit the speedboat, when it is not the pilot who is clever by going to meet them to hit them head on“…
Result: the person sitting at the front, generally with their back to the wave, does not see it coming, does not anticipate the trauma. It takes off under the effect of a phenomenon of “bridge slam“, and falls back crashing down… Notice to lovers of selfies and thrills: “The fractures caused are equivalent to a fall from two floors.“
This prevention poster will be distributed on social networks, in town halls, tourist offices, to boat rental companies and harbor master’s offices in the region.
Photo DR
Spinal fractures, possible neurological damage…
To prevent more and more frequent accidents with the influx of tourists, the AP-HM and the ARS are launching an awareness campaign.
“Spinal Fractures on Motorboat Sightseeing Cruises: An Underestimated and Preventable Phenomenon“: the title of the multicenter study carried out by the neurosurgery departments of the AP-HM, the applied biomechanics laboratory of the University of the Mediterranean, and the army training hospital sums up the problem.
A large majority of lesions (88.9%) concerned the thoraco-lumbar hinge with vertebral compression fractures, a phenomenon which affected, in the study, more women than men, with an average age of around 45 years. .
“We first thought that this was due to the prevalence of osteoporosis in women, but in the end only three were affected by this pathology”, explain the authors. Another explanation is therefore proposed: “the prevalence of captains of males who drive a boat while the wives are in the bow.“
Injuries from impact require “surgery, five to six days of hospitalization, one or two months of sick leave and follow-up“, specifies Stéphane Fuentès. But the functional impact can be very important, with a neurological impact encountered in 7.6% of the patients in the study. neurological, partial motor deficit, urinary incontinence.”
Faced with the multiplication of this type of accident over the past four summers, the AP-HM and the Paca Regional Health Agency are launching an awareness campaign aimed at the general public. The poster opposite will be posted on social networks, in town halls, tourist offices, boat rental companies and harbor master’s offices in the region. “You can sit and get a tan at the front of the boat, but only when it is stationary! As soon as the boat sets sail, the instructions for passengers are to get into rear, or on the protective flanges.”
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