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Citation |
Beucler N. World Neurosurg. 2024; ePub(ePub): ePub. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2024, Elsevier Publishing) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
38437981 |
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Abstract |
Sometimes in large scale naval battles during World War II, sailors sustained serious lower limbs injuries when sea mines explosion blast was transmitted from underneath through the metal deck of the ships. Some of these sailors were thrown in the air because of the blast, and sustained supplementary axial trauma of the spine when they landed on the hard deck, which was thus coined a "deck slap" by Captain Joseph Barr in 1946, among others. Nowadays, this peculiar mechanism has shifted to the civilian setting. Tourists unaware of the danger may suffer from spine compression fractures when they sit at the bow of speed boats while underway on a calm sea. When the craft unexpectedly crosses the wake of another ship, tourists are thrown a few feet in the air before suffering a hard landing on their buttocks. I hope that the preventive message conveyed by this historical vignette will help to reduce this poorly known yet avoidable "summer wave of vertebral fractures". Language: en |