Abstract
Purpose :
Electric scooters (e-scooters) and hoverboards are novel personal motorized vehicles. Herein, we comparatively evaluated eye and orbit injuries in non-electric, e-scooter, and hoverboard riders in the United States between 2014-2019.
Methods :
We queried the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) for head and neck injuries by body part codes related to non-powered scooters and powered scooters/hoverboards from 2014-2019. We used NEISS complex sampling design to obtain US population projections of injuries and hospital admissions. We queried keywords in case narratives to capture eye and orbit injuries and analyze trends in location, type, and mechanism of ophthalmologic injuries.
Results :
A total of 92368 (95% CI, 65633-119107) and 22217 (95% CI, 9761-34673) non-powered and e-scooter injuries occurred. Since its introduction in 2015, 19227 (95% CI, 11308-27148) hoverboard injuries occurred. In contrast to a 24% (p=0.002) decrease in non-powered scooters injuries from 2014 to 2019, e-scooter injuries increased 586% (p=0.01) and hoverboard injuries increased 866% (p<0.001). Increased hospital admissions were associated with non-powered scooters (55.88%, p= 0.03) and e-scooters (1093%, p= 0.47). Among all age groups, young adults (18-34) were most injured accounting for 43% of e-scooter injuries in 2019, while specifically experiencing a 5980% (p = 0.002) uptick in e-scooter injuries. Urban e-scooter cases increased by 830%. (Figure 1)
Descriptive narratives noted eye injuries in 242 unweighted NEISS cases, yet only 30 cases were documented under body part code 77: eyeball. Eye injuries increased 96.9% during the study period (p=0.23). The most common ophthalmologic injuries reported included eyebrow (40.9%) and eyelid (11.3%) lacerations, periorbital contusions (18.7%), orbit fractures (6.6%), and corneal abrasions (5.1%). E-scooter riders sustained 5 times more orbit fractures compared to no-powered scooter riders. Ejection and riding while intoxicated increased over the study period as mechanisms of injury with e-scooters (Figure 2).
Conclusions :
From 2014-2019, there were significant increases in both head and neck injury cases and hospital admissions related to e-scooters. Eye injuries similarly increased but were under-reported by body part code compared to the injury narratives.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.