Helmet use among children in an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and dirt bike crashes is associated with lower odds of adverse neurological outcomes, according to a study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. Investigators analyzed data from one pediatric trauma center on all patients involved in ATV or dirt bike crashes from 2010-2019. The associations between helmet status and neurosurgical consultation, intracranial injury, and moderate or severe traumatic brain injury (MSTBI) were examined among 680 patients (34% helmeted). Unhelmeted patients more often had head imaging performed than helmeted patients (70.9% vs 48.3%). Un-helmeted patients more often had MSTBI (8.0% vs 1.7%) and neurosurgical consultation (26.2% vs 9.1%) and more often had neurosurgical injuries, including intracranial hemorrhage (16% vs 4%) and skull fracture (18% vs 4%). Overall, 2.7% of unhelmeted patients required neurosurgical procedures compared with only 0.4% of helmeted patients. Helmet use significantly reduced the odds of neurosurgical consultation (OR, 0.250), intracranial injury (OR, 0.172), and MSTBI (OR, 0.244) after adjusting for confounding variables.
