Musculoskeletal Injuries Associated With Hoverboard Use in Children. (September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Monteilh, Cecilia; Patel, Prina; Gaffney, John
• Is Part Of: Clinical pediatrics. Volume 56:Number 10(2017)
• Page Start: 909
• Page End: 911
• Publication Date: 2017-09
• Subjects: hoverboard -- safety -- injury -- fall -- public safety; Pediatrics -- Periodicals; 618.920005
• DOI: 10.1177/0009922817706143
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0009-9228

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.