Head injuries in pedal cyclists: how much will protection help?

One hundred consecutive head injuries in cyclists were studied to record the mechanism of accident and the site of impact in order to assess the benefit of a protective helmet. Eleven patients were admitted for injuries sustained, 6 of them with the head as their principal site of injury. Five required only 24 hours' observation, but 1 died after 72 hours from severe primary brain injury. A protective helmet would have covered the sites of impact in five of these six cases and this could have reduced the severity of the injury. A helmet would also reduce the large number of minor injuries seen in the accident department. This small study shows that the wearing of helmets by cyclists would reduce the numbers of head injuries and thus expenditure by the National Health Service. The use of properly designed and tested helmets should be encouraged.