The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol 70, Issue 2 275-284, Copyright © 1988 by Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc
Orthopaedic injuries in children associated with the use of off-road vehicles
JA Pyper and GB Black
Section of Orthopaedics, University of Manitoba, Children's Hospital, Winnipeg.
Two hundred and thirty-three children who had musculoskeletal injuries
related to the use of off-road vehicles were admitted to acute-care
hospitals in the two largest urban centers in Manitoba between April 1979
and August 1986. There were 190 boys and forty-three girls, and the ages
ranged from two to seventeen years. Ninety-three accidents involved the use
of a minibike or dirtbike; seventy-two, a snowmobile; fifty-nine, a
three-wheeled all-terrain vehicle; and nine, a four-wheeled all-terrain
vehicle. The injuries in 73 per cent of the children occurred in a rural
setting. The use of alcohol or a drug was recorded for only three children.
Loss of control of the vehicle led to the majority of injuries. There were
352 fractures of an extremity or the spine and fifty-one major soft-tissue
injuries of the musculoskeletal system; 186 (53 per cent) of the fractures
were displaced, 107 (46 per cent) of the patients had more than one
fracture, and thirty-four (10 per cent) of the fractures were open. There
were sixty growth-plate injuries. A total of 186 associated injuries were
present in ninety-one patients. In a separate review of the records of the
Chief Medical Examiner, it was noted that twenty-one fatal accidents that
were related to the use of off-road vehicles occurred in the Province of
Manitoba during the same period of time.