Children participating in sport should be adequately supervised and should wear proper protective gear, a doctor warned yesterday, after a study showed some 1,200 children had to be treated for sports injuries at just one Irish hospital over six months.
The children were all treated at the accident and emergency department of Cork University Hospital where the retrospective study was carried out. One in 10 had to be admitted and treating them cost the hospital a staggering €½ million over just six months in 2001.
Dr Stephen Cusack, a consultant in emergency medicine at the hospital, said he was "quite surprised" at the number who required admission. He confirmed the injuries were sustained in 53 different sports from rugby to skateboarding and sailing. Bouncy castle injuries also featured.
Boys were injured more than girls and the most common injuries, Dr Cusack confirmed, were soft-tissue ones.
He said that of those admitted, two-thirds were treated for orthopaedic injuries such as fractures. Upper-limb fractures were more common in girls and lower-limb fractures more common in boys.
One third presented with mild head injuries. A small number had sustained serious head injuries, he said. About one third of all the injuries occurred while the children were playing either Gaelic football, soccer or rugby. Gaelic football and soccer tended to be responsible for broken bones and rugby for soft tissue injuries. Dr Cusack said the number of children requiring hospital treatment was "very large. What it all means will require a little bit more work but we found there was a low usage of protective gear, helmets in hurling for instance, and interestingly about one quarter of the children who presented had previously been treated in the unit for a sports-related injury", he said.
"But children should not stop taking part in sport. This study reflects the fact that a lot of children are involved in sports and that they do require supervision and should be well protected when they go out to play," he added.
He urged parents to ensure children wear helmets when hurling and said parental supervision is very important for several activities, including using bouncy castles.
The study entitled Is Exercise Good for You? A Review of Children Admitted via the Emergency Department with Sports Related Injuries was carried out by Dr Cusack and colleagues at Cork University Hospital.
It will be presented at a memorial lecture in Galway next week.