gms | German Medical Science

Primary neuronal damage is irreversible. Nevertheless, the term "prophylaxis" is not mentioned in the German catalogue for specialization in neurosurgery. In order to prevent accidents on the way to school, training courses have been established.

Following points were examined by verbal, visual and practical interaction with students between 10 to 12 years of age (5^th class; 2 hours): 1) Description of the “way to school” with analysis of typical hazards (i.e. technical status of the bikes) and search for preventional strategies; 2) falls of raw eggs on mini helmets from a height of 1,50 m in comparison to falls of these eggs without helmet from a height of 15 cm; 3) reconstruction of broken raw eggs with simple surgical instruments and gyps; 4) simulation of the blind angle of a vehicle driver followed by a cyclist; 5) deceleration of an ad hoc constructed car (1:19) with normal and doubled velocity to demonstrate the exponential extension of the braking distance; 6) recovery position of the injured person in five steps conducted by a student 7) conduction of a phone call describing the emergency with special attention to the correct localisation of the accident.

30 classes with a mean of 31 children have been trained. Ad 1) In every class one to two recent accidents with medical treatment were mentioned; 2) In 90 trials, only one egg on a mini helmet and all of them without helmet broke when thrown from the above mentioned heights. Nevertheless, in 10% of the cases, especially boys tried to destroy protected eggs by extraordinary and rotational acceleration; 3) none of the broken eggs could be repaired, despite enormous efforts to reconstruct the eggshells with gyps; 4) 85% of the students failed to protect their schoolfellows during the blind angle simulation and only every second learned to modify "car driving" during repetition of the experiment; 5) without exception, no student was able to determinate the quadruplication of a braking distance after doubling the speed; 6) a correct recovery position was performed only in 30% of the children on the first attempt; 7) only 65% of the students reported the accident by specifying the correct location. Girls showed a better performance in tests 6 & 7 compared to boys.

There is an urgent demand for student training courses in order to prevent accidents.