@article{ref1,
title="Events due to snowblower use seen in US emergency departments from 2003 through 2018",
journal="Curēus",
year="2020",
author="Solanki, Dhruv and Loder, Randall T.",
volume="12",
number="12",
pages="e11836-e11836",
abstract="OBJECTIVE To comprehensively analyze emergency department (ED) visits associated with snowblower use in the United States. <br><br>METHODS Data on National Electronic Injury  Surveillance System ED visits due to snow blowers from 2003 through 2018 were  analyzed by age, sex, diagnosis, anatomic location of the injury, and year, month,  or weekday. The mechanism of injury and alcohol use were noted. Statistical analyses  were performed, accounting for the weighted, stratified nature of the data. <br><br>RESULTS  There were an estimated 91,451 patients with an average age of 51 years; 91.2% were  male. Amputation, fracture, or laceration accounted for 43,524 (47.6%) of the ED  visits. The mechanism of injury was placing the hand into the chute (44.5%), a  fall/slip (13.3%), medical events (6.1%), and miscellaneous (33.8%). Most (68.9%)  occurred at home. Alcohol was rarely involved (0.4%). There were 648 deaths; 647  were due to cardiac events. The five major injury diagnoses were fracture (25.9%),  laceration (20.2%), strain/sprain (15.0%), amputation (11.2%), and  contusion/abrasion (10.2%); 99.8% of the amputations involved fingers. The incidence  of ED snowblower visits was 1.845 per 100,000 US population with no change over  time. There was a general correlation between the number of visits and the annual  snow cover. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS Ample opportunity for injury prevention exists, as there was  no change in the incidence over time. Cardiac events accounted for essentially all  of the deaths.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2168-8184",
doi="10.7759/cureus.11836",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.11836"
}