Emergency department pediatric all-terrain vehicle injuries in West Central Illinois.

OBJECTIVES

This study was prepared to evaluate pediatric all-terrain vehicle-related injuries treated in a tertiary care emergency department in West Central Illinois.

METHODS

A retrospective descriptive study was performed of local emergency department cases entered into the US Consumer Product Safety Commission database. All visits involving an all-terrain vehicle-related injury in children younger than 18 years from January 1994 to December 2001 were explicitly reviewed and compared with aggregate national Consumer Product Safety Commission pediatric all-terrain vehicle data.

RESULTS

One hundred eighty-seven children (age range, 2-17 years) from 14 West Central Illinois counties were treated in the emergency department during the study period. Injury patterns followed a national trend of an increasing annual incidence after 1998 (P = 0.05). The majority of patients were boys (78%) and were 12 years or younger (71%). Contusions (31.8%), fractures (25%), and lacerations (18.8%) accounted for the majority of injuries. Although observed injuries correlated well with national injury estimates for injury position, age, and sex, more head and chest injuries were noted locally. Derived injury severity scores had a mean of 3.1 (range, 1-50), and no difference was noted in the injury severity score for helmet use, sex, or age younger than 12 years.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the incidence of all-terrain vehicle-related injuries in West Central Illinois in the emergency department is increasing, and local injury patterns correlate well with those reported on a national level.