Tarzan swings: a dangerous new epidemic.

Accidental injury in school children was thought to be unpreventable. This series presents the results of 24 consecutive patients with 29 fractures as a result of a fall from a 'Tarzan' rope swing. Twenty-six of the fractures involved the upper limb, 11 patients required hospitalization with operative intervention and 13 required outpatient care only. These types of injury are preventable. The morbidity and pain that these young patients suffer can be avoided.