Equestrian injuries: A five-year review

doi:10.1016/0736-4679(94)90690-4

The Journal of Emergency Medicine

Volume 12, Issue 2, March–April 1994, Pages 143-145

https://doi.org/10.1016/0736-4679(94)90690-4 Get rights and content

Abstract

A retrospective chart review was conducted to define the demographic and injury patterns of patients presenting to the emergency department (ED). The setting is a rural/small urban tertiary care center with approximately 40,1100 visits per year. All patients presenting to the ED from January 1986 through December 1990 with equestrian-related injuries were enrolled in the study. Measurements included age, sex, mechanism of injury, injury or injuries diagnosed, admission to the hospital, morbidity, and morality. A total of 142 patients met the inclusion criteria. The majority of Injuries occurred when the patient fell from a horse. There were also a large number of injuries associated with handling the horse. Most injuries were minor, but 15% required hospital admission. There were no deaths. In conclusion, equestrian activities are associated with a risk of serious injury to both riders and handlers of horses. Education of both the public and primary care physicians should focus on injury prevention.

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nEU-Med project. Two cases of disability in an equestrian context from a 10th century royal court in Tuscany (Italy)
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In order to assess other hypotheses on the causes of amputation, the possibility that SK44 practiced horse-riding activities has also been taken into account. Trauma, commonly recorded in equestrian samples, may be caused by horse fall, crushing the rider’s spine, pelvis or lower limbs due to proximity to the animal during the accident (Hobbs et al., 1994; Norwood et al., 2000; Sorli, 2000; Thomas et al., 2006; Ball et al., 2007, 2009; Loder, 2008; Eckert et al., 2011). Head and body extremities are the regions of the skeleton most frequently involved in equestrian injuries (Srinivasan et al., 2014).
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Der Pferdesport erfreut sich weltweit wachsender Beliebtheit. Stürze vom Pferd kommen zwar häufig vor, führen aber eher selten zu schweren Verletzungen. Es muss grundsätzlich zwischen Unfällen während der Ausübung des Pferdesports und dem bloßen Umgang mit dem Pferd differenziert werden, da hier unterschiedliche Verletzungsmuster zu beachten sind. Im Rahmen der Unfallprävention kommen der Aufklärung über potenzielle Unfallrisiken sowie der fundierten Ausbildung von Reiter und Pferd besondere Bedeutung zu.
Equestrian sports enjoy very high popularity around the globe. Although the incidence of falling from a horse is quite high, there seem to be relatively few serious injuries. There is a need to differentiate between accidents occuring during exercising and those happening whilst grooming a horse. Both result in different types of injury patterns. Injury prevention is of utmost importance and should focus on risk assessment, staff training and a well-founded education of horse and rider.
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Equestrian injuries in children
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Overall in our series, more than 50% of the children required hospital admission for treatment. This finding is greater than the 5% to 15% reported in the literature [7-9]. We initially believed that our finding was attributable to our being a tertiary referral, level I trauma center.
Equestrian activities are regarded by some as high-risk sports, and our recent experience suggested this to be true. We undertook this study to review our experience with pediatric equestrian injuries.
After institutional review board approval, we reviewed emergency department and hospital admissions for children 0 to 18 years, with equestrian trauma, over an 11-year period.
There were 164 encounters with 135 girls and 29 boys. Most injuries (82%) occurred after falling or being thrown from the animal, and only 12% occurred during jumping or rodeo competitions. The remaining injuries were secondary to being trampled, kicked, or trapped under the animal. Eighty-seven children required hospital admission. Lacerations and contusions (58%) or orthopedic injuries (31%) were most common in the emergency department cohort. In the admission cohort, injury sites included orthopedic (34%), head (23%), abdomen (21%), and chest (11%). Multiple injuries occurred in 13%. A significant number of children required surgical interventions, including 19 orthopedic procedures, 4 laparotomies, 3 facial reconstructions, and 2 craniotomies. The average length of stay was nearly 4 days, with 60% of the children requiring intensive care admission. There were no deaths. One child was discharged to rehab, the rest were sent home.
In our experience, more than one third of the children admitted after sustaining injuries in horse-related sports required surgical interventions. Children participating in equestrian activities are at risk for substantial injury, and pediatric care providers must maintain a high index of suspicion when evaluating these children.
Rein contact between horse and handler during specific equitation movements
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Original contributionEquestrian injuries: A five-year review

Abstract

Br J Accident Surg

Accidents in equestrian sports

Am Fam Physician

Pediatric equestrian injuries: a 14 year review

J Trauma

Injuries associated with horseback riding-United States, 1989 and 1988

JAMA

Lethal horse-riding injuries

J Trauma

Original contribution
Equestrian injuries: A five-year review