U.S. emergency rooms reported more than 4 million basketball-related pediatric injuries between 1997 and 2007 (375,350 annually).
In “Basketball Related Injuries in School-Age Children, 1997-2007,” published in the October 2010 print issue of Pediatrics (published online Sept. 13), researchers reviewed National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) data at more than 100 hospital emergency rooms. The most common reported injuries were a strain or sprain to the lower extremities (30.3 percent), and particularly to the ankle (23.8 percent). While injuries declined during the 11-year time period, the number of basketball-related traumatic brain injuries jumped 70 percent.
Boys were more likely to sustain lacerations, fractures or dislocations; girls were more likely to sustain traumatic brain injuries and injuries to the knee. Older children, ages 15 to 19 years, were more likely to sustain injuries to the lower extremities; younger children, ages 5 to 10, were more likely to sustain injuries to the upper extremities, traumatic brain injuries, fractures or dislocations.
According to the study authors, the continued high number of basketball-related injuries and the rise in traumatic brain injuries remain a cause for concern, and more research is needed to fully understand the factors behind the increase.
