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Cycling-Related Head Injuries Increasing

August 3, 2006

Bike Safety • Bicycles Still a Major Source of Injury • Bike Helmet Laws Reduce Injuries, Study Shows • Cycling-Related Head Injuries Increasing • Good Reasons to Wear a Bike Helmet

With the growing popularity of bicycling has come a corresponding increase in head injuries, according to medical researchers. According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), the most recent statistics indicate that there were an estimated 64,500 bicycling-related head injuries treated in United States hospital emergency rooms in 2005.

Between 1984 and 1988, an average of 962 deaths resulted annually from bicycling-related injuries. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused 62 percent of all deaths resulting from bicycle accidents. Forty percent of deaths occurred in children age 15 and younger.

Clearly, children are at the greatest risk of sustaining these injuries. Boys age 10 to 14 are at the highest risk.

"Bicycle helmets provide measurable protection in terms of both reducing the deceleration experienced by a person's head and protecting against direct compressive force," said Dr. Arthur Day, AANS vice president and director of the Cerebrovascular Center and Neurologic Sports Injury Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass. "Yet too many children and adults take unnecessary risks and do not wear helmets."

Overall, sports and recreational activities contribute to about 21 percent of all TBIs among American children and adolescents. A TBI is defined as a blow or jolt to the head or a penetrating head injury that disrupts the normal function of the brain.

TBI can result when the head suddenly and violently hits an object, or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue. The term head injury is often used synonymously with TBI, but a head injury may not be associated with neurological deficits, and can refer to a minor bump on the head or be severe enough to cause brain injury.

"Wearing properly fitting safety gear for the sport, whether it is a helmet for bicycling, rollerblading, football, baseball or a host of other sports, is a preventive step that can greatly decrease the risk of suffering a potentially serious or fatal head injury," added Day. A summer of fun can too quickly turn into a life-shattering tragedy that could have been avoided in so many cases by just taking proper safety precautions."

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