Musculoskeletal Injuries Associated With Hoverboard Use in Children

Abstract

Hoverboards burst onto the scene with wide popularity only to be quickly deemed unsafe and banned in many arenas. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 35 patients seen in our outpatient pediatric orthopedic office over a 1-year period. The mean age of injured patients was 11.14 years; 18 patients were male (51.4%), and 17 were female (48.5%). The highest number of injuries occurred in children 10 to 14 years old who had 57.1% of the injuries. There were a total of 31 fractures in 27 patients. Most of the fractures were in the upper extremities (93.6 %). Also, 9 soft-tissue injuries were found in 8 patients; 88.9 % of injuries occurred in the upper extremities. Most of the injuries were secondary to a fall (94.3%). We found that the most common injury was upper-extremity fracture. We suggest restricting riding <16 years and encourage protective equipment, especially elbow and wrist guards.

Orthopedic Injuries Associated with Hoverboard Use in Children: A Multi-center Analysis

“…The literature to date is devoid of multi-center or multi-region investigations of pediatric orthopedic hoverboard–related injuries in the USA. This multi-center study substantiates some of the findings and conclusions drawn in previous single-center or single-region studies in children: hoverboards have created a significant burden of injury, particularly upper-extremity fractures from falls [2, 6, 9, 12, 13, 16–18, 20]. All report a significant deficit in the use and regulation of protective gear.…”

“…It requires a keen sense of balance and control and poses significant risk of forward, backward, and torsional falls, as well as a risk of fingers and toes catching in the wheels. As a result, the hoverboard has been associated since its release with various orthopedic injuries, particularly in children, including upper-extremity fractures related to falls [2, 6, 9, 12, 13, 17, 18, 20] and non-orthopedic injuries, such as concussions and burns (the devices presented a fire hazard). Around the December 2015 holiday season, many social media and news outlets reported injuries related to hoverboards.…”

Panic Over a New Phenomenon Among Kids: Hoverboard Related Injuries at a Pediatric Emergency Department

“…Analyzing the site of the injury, the upper extremity was the most common region of the body to be affected, and the fracture was the most common type of injury. These ndings were replicated by other studies [4,11,12,14,16,28]. Some of these studies also detailed an increase in the wrist and forearm injuries, speci cally fractures.…”

Orthopedic fracture hospitalizations are revving up from E-Scooter related injuries

“…13 Additionally, Monteilh reported that among a retrospective cohort of 35 pediatric patients <18 years of age with associated electric hoverboard injuries, the upper extremity was the most common fracture location. 14 Furthermore, this study reported that over 85% of e-scooter related injuries were due to ground level fall/crash. This can be explained by the fact that the most common injury mechanism is from falling off the scooter and causing an outstretched hand.…”