Citation

Schlaff CD, Sack KD, Elliott RJ, Rosner MK. World Neurosurg. 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences,; Department of Neurological Surgery, The George Washington University Hospital.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.wneu.2019.08.237

PMID

31505288

Abstract

In efforts to decrease vehicular traffic in major metropolitan cities throughout the United States, multiple ride-sharing companies have launched dockless, electric scooters and bicycles throughout cities. From September 2017 through November 2018, the City of Washington, D.C. launched a 15-month dockless vehicle pilot program to allow for the rapid entry and growth of electric scooters within the metropolitan area. This rapid growth resulted in a number of injuries, both minor and significant. We reviewed the electronic medical record of the George Washington University Hospital in order to investigate and characterize the types of e-scooter related injuries resulting in neurosurgical consultation in the 15-month period of the Washington, D.C. scooter pilot program. In total, 13 patients suffered injuries serious enough to merit neurosurgical consultation, including one patient whose symptoms required procedural intervention by a Neurointerventional Radiologist and another patient who was pronounced dead soon after arrival to the hospital. In this paper, the authors highlight more severe injuries which have resulted in hospitalization or intervention such as a case of skull fracture, central cord syndrome, and vertebral compression fracture. This case series aims to illustrate the potential severity of injuries related to electric scooters, raise awareness on the issues of safety and public health, and call for further investigation into injuries relating to electric scooters.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

head; scooters; spine; trauma