Accidents involving bicycles are responsible for a significant proportion of trauma in children, resulting in an estimated 430,000 hospital visits and 275 deaths annually. In an effort to determine the frequency and magnitude of direct impact handlebar related injuries, the study reviewed bicycle related injuries and compared outcomes with children who flipped over the handlebars to those who suffered direct impact from the handlebars. All patients with the descriptor "handlebar" were selected, and were divided into two groups: those who flipped over the handlebars and those who suffered direct impact from the handlebars. The study's most striking result was that 31% of children sustaining direct impact handlebar injuries required operative intervention, nearly twice the number of children who flipped over the handlebars (17.5%). While helmet use may have reduced the number of serious head injuries, direct impact from the handlebars remains the major source of bicycle related morbidity since nearly one third of those patients required surgery.
Abstract