Orthopaedic Injury Patterns Related to Ice Skating, Inline Skating, and Roller Skating: A 20-Year Epidemiologic Analysis

BACKGROUND: Ice skating, inline skating, and roller skating are popular sports in the United States (US). Although they are similar, injuries incurred may be distinct and may have evolved over time. PURPOSE: To characterize injuries related to ice skating, inline skating, and roller skating and track injury patterns over a 20-year period. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive epidemiology study. METHODS: The current study utilized the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, a database reporting consumer product-related injuries seen at emergency departments in the US. All ice skating, inline skating, and roller skating injuries between 2002 and 2021 were identified, and patient demographics, types of injury, and year of injury were compared between skating types. RESULTS: A total of 1,656,746 skating-related injuries were estimated nationally: 24% (403,791) for ice skating, 24% (400,172) for inline skating, and 52% (852,783) for roller skating. While the incidence of ice-skating- and roller-skating-related injuries decreased by 34.4% (from 22,490 in 2002-2004 to 14,758 in 2019-2021) and 29.6% (from 42,452 in 2002-2004 to 31,980 in 2019-2021), respectively, injuries related to inline skating decreased comparatively more, by 75.8% over the study period (from 48,097 in 2002-2004 to 11,662 in 2019-2021). Injuries occurred predominantly to the head/face/neck for ice skating (n = 139,501; 34.5% of injuries), whereas injuries occurred predominantly in the shoulder/arm/elbow/wrist for inline skating (n = 212,088, 53.0% of injuries) and roller skating (n = 425,216, 49.9% of injuries). Fracture was the most common injury type for all 3 skating types (n = 614,853, 37.1% of injuries), and the majority of fractures occurred in the upper extremity (shoulder/arm/elbow/wrist) for all 3 skating types (n = 59,624, 60.0% [ice skating]; n = 69,197, 41.2% [inline skating], and n = 237,099, 68.2% [roller skating]). Lower extremity (leg/knee/ankle) fractures were more common among ice skating (n = 28,019, 28.2%) and roller skating (n = 82,094, 23.6%) injuries compared with inline skating (n = 21,391, 12.7%). CONCLUSION: In the current study, we found that fractures were the most common type of injury regardless of skating type but that the location of the injury/fracture varied by skating type.