BACKGROUND: The popularity of rollerblading and skateboarding activities in Norway is reflected in the number of injuries seen at our casualty centres and hospitals. MATERIAL AND METHODS: During 1998, we made a prospective registration of 7,041 new injuries involving children below the age of 16 treated at the Accident and Emergency Department and at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen. RESULTS: Rollerblading and skateboarding injuries accounted for 113 cases, representing 1.6% of all injuries. Three quarters were boys, nine out of ten were 10 to 15-year-olds, and arms/hands were injured in two thirds of the cases. Almost two thirds of the injuries were fractures (n = 67), representing a higher fraction than seen in other activities. Most of them were distal radial fractures (n = 39), but scaphoid fractures, an otherwise seldom child fracture, were seen in one tenth (n = 6) of all fractures. INTERPRETATION: Scaphoid fractures can, when untreated, cause pseudarthrosis; this should be borne in mind when treating children with hand pain after fall on their rollerblades or skateboards. As fractures of the hand root and wrist accounted for 40% of all injuries, hand and wrist protection seem to be the best preventive measure in terms of number of injuries.
BACKGROUND: The popularity of rollerblading and skateboarding activities in Norway is reflected in the number of injuries seen at our casualty centres and hospitals. MATERIAL AND METHODS: During 1998, we made a prospective registration of 7,041 new injuries involving children below the age of 16 treated at the Accident and Emergency Department and at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen. RESULTS: Rollerblading and skateboarding injuries accounted for 113 cases, representing 1.6% of all injuries. Three quarters were boys, nine out of ten were 10 to 15-year-olds, and arms/hands were injured in two thirds of the cases. Almost two thirds of the injuries were fractures (n = 67), representing a higher fraction than seen in other activities. Most of them were distal radial fractures (n = 39), but scaphoid fractures, an otherwise seldom childfracture, were seen in one tenth (n = 6) of all fractures. INTERPRETATION: Scaphoid fractures can, when untreated, cause pseudarthrosis; this should be borne in mind when treating children with hand pain after fall on their rollerblades or skateboards. As fractures of the hand root and wrist accounted for 40% of all injuries, hand and wrist protection seem to be the best preventive measure in terms of number of injuries.