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Incidence, Management, and Hospital Costs of Orthopaedic Injuries of E-Scooter Riders in Western Australia

The use of electric scooters (e-scooters) is increasing in Australia and internationally. The increasing availability of e-scooters has led to a rise in the number of injuries, with most patients sustaining orthopaedic injuries. This retrospective case series describes the incidence, management, and...

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Autores principales: Raubenheimer, Kyle, Szeliga, Katherine, Manara, Jonathan R., Fatovich, Daniel M., Plant, James G. A., Blakeney, William G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10607584/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37892729
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12206591
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author Raubenheimer, Kyle
Szeliga, Katherine
Manara, Jonathan R.
Fatovich, Daniel M.
Plant, James G. A.
Blakeney, William G.
author_facet Raubenheimer, Kyle
Szeliga, Katherine
Manara, Jonathan R.
Fatovich, Daniel M.
Plant, James G. A.
Blakeney, William G.
author_sort Raubenheimer, Kyle
collection PubMed
description The use of electric scooters (e-scooters) is increasing in Australia and internationally. The increasing availability of e-scooters has led to a rise in the number of injuries, with most patients sustaining orthopaedic injuries. This retrospective case series describes the incidence, management, and hospital costs of the orthopaedic injuries, which presented to the emergency department (ED) of the major trauma center in Western Australia. Data on demographics, ED dispatch destination, management, follow-up clinics, and hospital costs were collected between 2017 and 2022. Since June 2020, there have been 61 e-scooter crashes, which resulted in orthopaedic injuries, with more than half of the crashes occurring after the introduction of regional e-scooter sharing schemes. Thirty-two patients (52%) were admitted to the hospital. The most common orthopaedic fracture was to the upper limb (44%), followed by the lower limb (41%) and the axial skeleton (15%). Fourteen (23%) patients sustained more than one fracture. Twenty-two patients (36%) required operative management. The median number of outpatient clinic attendances per patient was 3 (interquartile range (IQR): 1–5), with inpatients requiring twice the number of clinics as compared to those discharged from the ED. The median cost per presentation was AU$5880.60 (IQR: AU$1283.10–AU$21,150.90) with inpatient costs exceeding those discharged from the ED. The range of the total costs was AU$413.80 to AU$100,239.80. The rise in the accessibility of e-scooters in Western Australia has led to a rise in ED presentations with orthopaedic injuries. Considering the recent implementation of e-scooter sharing schemes in metropolitan areas, ongoing surveillance of e-scooter injuries by clinicians and policy makers is warranted to inform harm minimization strategies.
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spelling pubmed-106075842023-10-28 Incidence, Management, and Hospital Costs of Orthopaedic Injuries of E-Scooter Riders in Western Australia Raubenheimer, Kyle Szeliga, Katherine Manara, Jonathan R. Fatovich, Daniel M. Plant, James G. A. Blakeney, William G. J Clin Med Article The use of electric scooters (e-scooters) is increasing in Australia and internationally. The increasing availability of e-scooters has led to a rise in the number of injuries, with most patients sustaining orthopaedic injuries. This retrospective case series describes the incidence, management, and hospital costs of the orthopaedic injuries, which presented to the emergency department (ED) of the major trauma center in Western Australia. Data on demographics, ED dispatch destination, management, follow-up clinics, and hospital costs were collected between 2017 and 2022. Since June 2020, there have been 61 e-scooter crashes, which resulted in orthopaedic injuries, with more than half of the crashes occurring after the introduction of regional e-scooter sharing schemes. Thirty-two patients (52%) were admitted to the hospital. The most common orthopaedic fracture was to the upper limb (44%), followed by the lower limb (41%) and the axial skeleton (15%). Fourteen (23%) patients sustained more than one fracture. Twenty-two patients (36%) required operative management. The median number of outpatient clinic attendances per patient was 3 (interquartile range (IQR): 1–5), with inpatients requiring twice the number of clinics as compared to those discharged from the ED. The median cost per presentation was AU$5880.60 (IQR: AU$1283.10–AU$21,150.90) with inpatient costs exceeding those discharged from the ED. The range of the total costs was AU$413.80 to AU$100,239.80. The rise in the accessibility of e-scooters in Western Australia has led to a rise in ED presentations with orthopaedic injuries. Considering the recent implementation of e-scooter sharing schemes in metropolitan areas, ongoing surveillance of e-scooter injuries by clinicians and policy makers is warranted to inform harm minimization strategies. MDPI 2023-10-18 /pmc/articles/PMC10607584/ /pubmed/37892729 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12206591 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Raubenheimer, Kyle
Szeliga, Katherine
Manara, Jonathan R.
Fatovich, Daniel M.
Plant, James G. A.
Blakeney, William G.
Incidence, Management, and Hospital Costs of Orthopaedic Injuries of E-Scooter Riders in Western Australia
title Incidence, Management, and Hospital Costs of Orthopaedic Injuries of E-Scooter Riders in Western Australia
title_full Incidence, Management, and Hospital Costs of Orthopaedic Injuries of E-Scooter Riders in Western Australia
title_fullStr Incidence, Management, and Hospital Costs of Orthopaedic Injuries of E-Scooter Riders in Western Australia
title_full_unstemmed Incidence, Management, and Hospital Costs of Orthopaedic Injuries of E-Scooter Riders in Western Australia
title_short Incidence, Management, and Hospital Costs of Orthopaedic Injuries of E-Scooter Riders in Western Australia
title_sort incidence, management, and hospital costs of orthopaedic injuries of e-scooter riders in western australia
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10607584/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37892729
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12206591
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