According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) horseback riding causes the highest proportion of traumatic brain injuries among sports-related recreational activities. Ice skating ranks second in recreational traumatic brain injuries. Young people account for almost two of every three sports-related traumatic brain injuries treated in every year. About 135,000 of the approximately 208,000 sports-related traumatic brain injuries treated annually occurred in young people ages five to 18. The injuries, defined as concussion or internal organ injury are very serious and should never be ignored. For all ages, basketball and bicycling accounted for the greatest number of emergency visits for all causes, with 603,239 and 524,692, respectively.
But the proportion of brain injuries was highest for horseback riding (11.7%), ice skating (10.4%), all-terrain vehicles (8.4%), tobogganing or sledding (8.3%), and bicycling (7.7%).
The CDC estimated that 1.1 million people with traumatic brain injuries are treated and released from emergency departments each year.
The CDC analysis excluded cases if the principal diagnosis was an illness, pain only, psychological harm only, contact dermatitis associated with consumer products or plants, or unknown. Also excluded were emergency visits that resulted from the adverse effects of therapy, those related to violence, and cases in which the patient was dead on arrival or died during treatment.
Although most traumatic brain injuries are initially seen as mild, even mild traumatic brain injury can affect a person's ability to return to school or work and can result in long-term cognitive or other problems.
Playing a sport is a wonderful way for kids to have fun and be active but there are risks involved when heads get bumped, players collide, get hit by balls, and people fall down.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/EmergencyMedicine/EmergencyMedicine/tb/6277
