Recreational Drone-Related Injuries in Children: A Review of National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) Data

Introduction Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles controlled by a person on the ground, used for recreational purposes. The purpose of the study is to describe characteristics and patterns of injuries reported in children from recreational drones. Methods We extracted data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System involving (NEISS) over a period of 10 years from 2010 to 2019 regarding injuries to children for ages zero up to 18 years. We included the subjects with drone-related injuries. All other toy-related injuries were excluded. We applied descriptive statistics to calculate proportions and confidence intervals for categorical variables and median for continuous variables. Results We included a total of 26 subjects. In our sample, the number of male subjects (65%; n = 17) was higher than the number of females (35%; n = 9). Head and face were the commonly affected body parts (58%, n = 15). The most common diagnoses were lacerations (42%; n = 11) and contusions/abrasions (27%; n = 7). The majority of the subjects were treated and discharged from the emergency department (92%; n = 24). A significant number of injuries were caused by the direct impact of drones (65%; n = 17). Conclusion Drones have the potential to cause injuries. Precautions are warranted to decrease the incidence of these injuries in children.