Injury patterns in cyclists attending an accident and emergency department: a comparison of helmet wearers and non-wearers

Abstract

Objectives-To study circumstances of bicycle accidents and nature of injuries sustained and to determine effect of safety helmets on pattern of miuries.Design-Prospective study of patients with cycle related injuries.Setting-Accident and emergency departnent of teaching hospital.Subjects-1040 patients with complete data presenting to the department in one year with cycle related injuries, ofwhom 114 had worn cycle helmets when accident occurred.Main outcome measures-Type of accident and nature and distribution of injuries among patients with and without safety helmets.Results-There were no significant differences between the two groups with respect to type of

Severe street and mountain bicycling injuries in adults: a comparison of the incidence, risk factors and injury patterns over 14 years

“…RESEARCH epidemiology of less severely injured cyclists, 9,10,[12][13][14][15][16][17]19 this retrospective cohort study analyzed only patients with severe multisystem injuries (ISS ≥ 12). This was affirmed by an overall median ISS of 17, ICU admission rate of 26.4%, surgical intervention rate of 33.3% and mortality of 6.6%.…”

“…4 Conversely, mountain biking injuries accounted for only 1.6% of all severe trauma patient admissions in this area from 1992 to 2002 (about 1-6 injuries per 100 000 patients per year). 5 Although observational studies of bicycling injuries are common, [3][4][5][6][7][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] to our knowledge, our study is the first to compare the overall major trauma epidemiology of street and mountain bicycling in detail. Few reports have discussed experience with severe bicycling-related multisystem injuries that require emergent surgical intervention or intensive care unit (ICU) admission.…”

Barriers to Bicycle Helmet Use

“…20 -27 Head injuries are sustained by 1% to 4% of helmeted bicyclists and 11% to 22% of unhelmeted bicyclists. 20,21 Casecontrol studies indicate that helmets reduce risk of head injury by 45% to 85%, of traumatic brain injury by 65% to 88%, of facial injury by 28% to 65%, and of loss of consciousness by 86%. [22][23][24][25][26][27] Despite the evidence indicating that bicycle helmets reduce the incidence and severity of head injury associated with bicycle accidents, observational studies have reported bicycle helmet use to be between 0% and 21.3% in areas that have not received interventions designed to increase bicycle helmet use.…”

Bicycle helmets — does the dental profession have a role in promoting their use?

“…Individuals who wear helmets are more cautious and are therefore less likely to be involved in accidents and sustain less serious injuries, thus distorting the accident figures. 40 One paper 41 specifically tried to evaluate whether wearing a helmet had an impact on other injuries sustained and found no difference between the two groups, which should have been the case if helmeted riders felt safer and took more risks. The total number of emergency admissions of cyclists across the period of another study 8 12,42 particularly adolescents.…”