gms | German Medical Science

55. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie e. V. (DGNC)
1. Joint Meeting mit der Ungarischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC) e. V.

25. bis 28.04.2004, Köln

Specific patterns of bicycle accident injuries - An analysis of correlation between level of head trauma and trauma mechanism

Spezifische Unfallmechanismen von Fahrradverkehrsunfällen - Analyse der Korrelation zwischen dem Unfallmechanismus und dem Schweregrad des Schädel-Hirn-Traumas

Meeting Abstract

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  • corresponding author Frank Thomas Möllmann - Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Strasse 33, 48149 Münster
  • B. Rieger - Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Strasse 33, 48149 Münster
  • H. Wassmann - Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Strasse 33, 48149 Münster

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Ungarische Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 55. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie e.V. (DGNC), 1. Joint Meeting mit der Ungarischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Köln, 25.-28.04.2004. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2004. DocMO.14.01

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dgnc2004/04dgnc0134.shtml

Published: April 23, 2004

© 2004 Möllmann et al.
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Outline

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Objective

Compared to the efforts made in understanding the mechanisms of car accidents and their injury patterns, much less is known about these factors for cyclists. Consequently a series of protection systems for car drivers have been developed. Similar innovations relating to bicycles are rare. The identification of typical types of cyclists' injuries should help us understand their specific risks. In this evaluation we focused on head trauma.

Methods

Accident mechanisms, treatment and outcome in head trauma patients were evaluated in a standarized prospective multicenter study. For follow-up, patients were interviewed one year after incident using a standarized questionnaire.

Results

A total of 3395 head trauma patients were enrolled in this evaluation, 337 (10%) of them suffered a bicycle traffic accident. Other types of trauma mechanisms were related to leisure time (36%), housework (28%), business (15%) and non-bicycle traffic accidents (11%). The bicycle accident patients had a significantly higher rate of mid-level head trauma (GCS 9-12) than with other accident mechanisms, which reveals this type of injury is related to bicycle traffic accidents in a specific way. 89% of the cyclist were not wearing helmets. There was no significant difference concerning the level of head-trauma due to bicycle accident between cyclists wearing a helmet and others.

Conclusions

Since cyclists are shown to have a higher risk of mid-level head trauma than all other trauma patients and bicycle helmets seem not to be sufficient to reduce the level of head trauma the helmets should be improved and new protection systems need to be developed.