Objective: To describe the demographics and types of sports-related injurie
s (SRIs) in children. Methods: The authors performed a retrospective chart
review of children 5-18 years of age diagnosed as having an SRI in a pediat
ric emergency department (ED) during a two-year period. Patients were ident
ified by ICD-9 codes. Data collected were age, sex, sport, ED interventions
, consultations, mechanism, location, and injury type. Pairwise comparisons
were reported as odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals. Results: Six h
undred seventy-seven SRIs fit the inclusion criteria; 480 of the patients w
ere male (71%). The mean ages of the males and females were 13.0 years (SD
+/- 3.0 yr) and 12.4 years (SD +/- 2.9 yr), respectively The six most commo
n sports implicated were basketball (19.5%), football (17.1%), baseball/sof
tball (14.9%), soccer (14.2%), in-line skating (Rollerblading)/skating (5.7
%), and hockey (4.6%). Sprains/strains (32.0%), fractures (29.4%), contusio
ns/abrasions (19.3%), and lacerations (9.7%) accounted for 90% of injury ty
pes. Pairwise comparison of the four injury types in the six sports listed
showed significant associations for contusions/abrasions in baseball, sprai
ns/strains in basketball, fractures in Rollerblading/skating, and laceratio
ns in hockey. Age variance, including all sports, of the younger group (5-1
1 yr) in fractures and the older group (12-18 yr) in sprains was significan
t. The most common injury location was wrist/hand (28%), followed by head/f
ace (22%) and ankle/foot (18%). Each had significant sport-specific predile
ctions. Contact with person or object was the mechanism for >50% of the SRI
s. Sport-specific mechanisms followed lines drawn from the sport-specific i
njury types and locations. Conclusions: The pediatric age group incurs a va
riety of injuries in numerous sports with diverse sex, age, mechanism, loca
tion, injury type, and sport-specific differences.