75,000 children end up in hospital emergency rooms due to trampoline injuries

New research has found that on average approximately 75,000 children end up in hospital emergency rooms due to trampoline injuries, the number has almost doubled since the 90s.

Dr. James Linakis, a pediatric emergency physician at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, R.I. says almost all of those injuries occur on backyard trampolines.

Linakis states quite categorically that the home environment and even the school environment are not the place for trampolines. He says though it will not be a popular idea, trampolines are only appropriate in very select, heavily supervised environments, such as a gymnastics school.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) reported an increase in trampoline-related injuries in 1999 and issued a policy recommending that trampolines not be used at home or for physical education classes at school.

After the policy came out it was expected there would be drop in the number of trampoline injuries, but instead, says Linakis, a large number of trampoline injuries are still being seen in the ER, and that very discrepancy triggered the study.

National data on trampoline injuries collected by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for 2001 and 2002, was reviewed and compared by Linakis and his colleagues to data collected for a study that looked at trampoline injuries from 1990 through 1995.

They found that during the early 1990s, about 42,000 children hurt themselves badly enough each year to require an emergency room visit. But, by 2001-2002, that number had jumped to almost 75,000 annually.

The number of injuries requiring hospital admission also jumped dramatically, from 1,400 each year in the early 1990s to 2,218 annually by 2001-2002.

Linakis is unsure why the injury rate is going up so dramatically, but speculates that either the message is not getting out or it is, and people are not listening.

The researchers found that the average age of the children injured was 9 and 53 percent were male, the most common injuries were bruises, cuts, fractures and dislocations.

The researchers were unable to collect information on exactly how the injuries occurred, but allowing more than one child on a trampoline at a time appeared to be a significant factor.

Dr. Karen Sheehan, medical director for Injury Prevention and Research at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, says more must be done to get the message out about the dangers of trampolines.

She says supervision is the key to avoiding injuries, and even though the AAP strongly recommends getting trampolines out of the home, it is improbable that will happen. In order to make them safer, children must always be supervised using them and only one child should jump at a time.

Although nets that enclose the trampoline may help, both Sheehan and Linakis say there is insufficent evidence which proves they make trampolines safer. Sheehan also says that many injuries, such as broken bones, occur even when children don't fall off the trampoline, and a net will not avoid those injuries happening.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, has reported that six children have died using trampolines since 1990, and they recommend that no children under 6 use a trampoline, and ladders are not used to access the trampoline because small children can then climb up unsupervised.

Older children should not attempt somersaults due to the increased the risk of a serious head or neck injury, and the trampoline should not be near tree branches or playground equipment.

The findings were presented on May 15 at the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting in Washington, D.C.