INTRODUCTION: Falls from heights contribute to 34% of fatal accidents in Singapore. Of these, 51% of the accidents occur in the construction industry. This retrospective review, of all persons falling from heights in the construction industry from 2006 to 2012 and attending a major hospital, analysed injury patterns and related them to mechanisms and contributory factors. METHODS: Information collected included injury and casualty characteristics, safety measures, pre-existing medical conditions and clinical outcomes. RESULTS: Of 1,085 patients, 951 were male with a mean age of 39.8 years, mean height of 165.9 cm and mean weight of 69.7 kg. Most of the casualties fell between 0800 and 2000 hours. Among the severely injured patients, 2.4% had head injuries, 54.9% had chest injuries and 39.2% had abdominal and pelvic injuries. For these casualties, the mortality rate was 60.8%. For patients with less than major trauma, the commonest injuries were in the lower limbs (41.8%), upper limbs (40.8%) and spine (22.2%). All the casualties survived. Falls from scaffolding, formwork and platforms were the most common causes of severe injuries (41.1%). Safety helmets and harnesses were reported to be used in 1.8% and 4.1% of instances of falls, respectively. CONCLUSION Studying the patterns of injuries following falls at construction sites has the potential for injury prevention through safe practices, use of safety equipment and targeted training.
Humans ; Male ; Adult ; Female ; Construction Industry ; Craniocerebral Trauma/etiology* ; Protective Devices ; Head Protective Devices ; Retrospective Studies ; Wounds and Injuries/etiology* ; Injury Severity Score

INTRODUCTION: Wheeled recreational devices (WRDs) include tricycles, bicycles, scooters, inline skates, skateboards, longboards and waveboards, and can cause significant morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to describe the epidemiology and nature of injuries sustained by children from WRD use, and risk factors for severe injury. METHOD: We described injuries relating to WRD use in children <18 years who presented to the emergency department of an Asian tertiary hospital between 2016 and 2020. Demographic data, site and nature of the injury, and historical trends were analysed. Risk factors for severe injury (defined as fractures or dislocations), Injury Severity Score ≥9, and injuries resulting in hospitalisation, surgery or death were evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 5,002 patients with 5,507 WRD-related injuries were attended to over the 5-year study period. Median age was 4.7 years. Injuries related to bicycles (54.6%) and scooters (30.3%) were most frequent, followed by skateboards and waveboards (7.4%), inline skates (4.7%), and tricycles (3.0%). Injuries occurred most frequently in public spaces. Soft tissue injuries (49.3%) and fractures (18.7%) were the most common diagnoses. Upper limb (36.4%) and head and neck (29.0%) regions were the most common sites of injury. Among the patients, 1,910 (38%) had severe injuries with potential morbidity. On multivariate analysis, heavier children of the school-going age who use either scooters, skateboards or inline skates are more prone to severe injuries. Involvement in a vehicular collision was a negative predictor. CONCLUSION WRD use in children can result in severe injuries. Wrist and elbow guards, as well as helmets are recommended, along with adequate parental supervision.
Child ; Child, Preschool ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Fractures, Bone/etiology* ; Head Protective Devices ; Humans ; Injury Severity Score ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Singapore/epidemiology*

BACKGROUND: Helmet use reduces the risk and severity of head injury and death due to road traffic crash among motorcyclists. The protective efficacy of different types of helmets varies. Wearing firmly fastened full-face helmet termed as effective helmet use provides greatest protection. This study estimates the prevalence and factors associated with effective helmet use among motorcyclists in Mysuru, a tier II city in Southern India. METHODS: Cross-sectional road side observational study of 3499 motorcyclists (2134 motorcycle riders and 1365 pillion riders) at four traffic intersections was done followed by interview of random sample of 129 of the above riders. Effective helmet use proportion and effective helmet use per 100 person-minute of observation was calculated. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was done to identify factors associated with effective helmet use. RESULTS: Prevalence of effective helmet use was 28 per 100 riders and 19.5 per 100 person-minute of observation in traffic intersections. Prevalence rates of effective helmet use was higher among riders (34.5% vs pillion riders 18.1%), female riders (51.3% vs male riders 26.8%), and male pillion riders (30.5% vs female pillion riders 13.7%). Riders commuting for work and school and those ever stopped by the police in the past 3 months had significantly higher odds of effective helmet use. CONCLUSION Despite helmet use being compulsory by law for motorcyclists, the effective helmet use was low in Mysore. Strict enforcement and frequent checks by the police are necessary to increase the effective helmet use.
Adult ; Cities ; Craniocerebral Trauma ; prevention & control ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Female ; Head Protective Devices ; statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; India ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Motorcycles ; statistics & numerical data ; Transportation ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: Motorcycle accident is a major cause of road traffic injuries and the motorcyclists are considered as vulnerable road users. The present study aimed to determine the epidemiological characteristics of fatal motorcycle crashes in Iran. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 28,356 motorcycle traffic fatalities registered in the Legal Medicine Organization of Iran were analyzed during the period between March 2011 and March 2017. The examined variables included demographic characteristics, helmet use, crash mechanisms, crash location, position state, type of counterpart vehicle, cause of death and place of death. In the study, road traffic mortalities involving drivers and/or passenger of motorcycles were included. Cases or events registered without these conditions were excluded from the study. To analyse the data, SPSS statistics 25 and GraphPad Prism 8 softwares were used. RESULTS: Of the 122,682 fatal traffic injury cases, 28,356 (23.1%) were motorcycle users, of whom 95.3% were male and 4.7% were female. Most of the motorcycle fatalities belonged to the age group of 18-24 years (29.1%). Head trauma was the major cause of death (59.0%). Also, the overall proportion of safety helmet use among motorcycle crash victims was estimated at 37.4%. Most of the road traffic crash cases (46.8%) happened out of city and half of people (49.9%) died in hospital. About 77.4% of the victims were motorcycle riders and 21.1% were pillion passengers. The highest rate of mortality belonged to the self-employed (38.4%) and then workers (21.8%) and students (10.2%). In addition, most fatalities occurred in people with low education (77.5%) and the least occurred in university graduates (5.5%). Among 31 provinces of Iran, Fars had the highest (9.3%) occurrence rate and Kohgiluyeh and Buyer-Ahmad had the lowest (0.5%). Most of the crash mechanisms were due to motorcycle-vehicle crashes (80.2%), followed by rollover (9.8%). CONCLUSION Comprehensive public education and special rules are needed to reduce the rate of deaths in motorcycle crashes.
Accidental Injuries ; epidemiology ; mortality ; prevention & control ; Accidents, Traffic ; mortality ; prevention & control ; statistics & numerical data ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Child ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Educational Status ; Female ; Head Protective Devices ; statistics & numerical data ; Health Education ; Humans ; Iran ; epidemiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Motorcycles ; Registries ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the epidemiological characteristics of bicycle injuries and the wearing of a helmet. METHODS: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted using the emergency department-based Injury In-depth Surveillance data from 2013 to 2016. The study population consisted of patients related to bicycles of all ages. The variables associated with helmet wearing were sex, age, type of location, activity at injury, alcohol use at injury, and time of injury. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted to estimate the risks of nonuse of helmets. RESULTS: Among the 31,923 eligible patients, 3,304 patients (10.3%) were wearing helmets at the time of the injury. The adjusted logistic regression model showed that females (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.675; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.614–0.742), teenagers (aOR, 0.265; 95% CI, 0.232–0.302), old age (aOR, 0.378; 95% CI, 0.326–0.438), road except for bicycle lanes (aOR, 0.510; 95% CI, 0.467-0.557), leisure (aOR, 0.290; 95% CI, 0.252–0.334) or vital activity (aOR, 0.188; 95% CI, 0.162–0.218) at injury, alcohol use at injury (aOR, 0.329; 95% CI, 0.253–0.427), night time (aOR, 0.609; 95% CI, 0.560–0.663), and winter (aOR 0.734; 95% CI 0.619–0.872) were significantly associated with the nonuse of helmets. CONCLUSION: This study identified the factors associated with helmet use during bicycle riding. Strategies aimed at increasing the use of bicycle helmets targeting the risk population are needed.
Adolescent ; Bicycling ; Emergencies ; Female ; Head Protective Devices ; Humans ; Leisure Activities ; Logistic Models ; Morinda ; Observational Study ; Odds Ratio

OBJECTIVE: To systematically evaluate the clinical efficacies of Helmet non-invasive ventilation and oxygen therapy on patients with hypoxemic respiratory failure. METHODS: The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for comparison of efficacy between Helmet non-invasive ventilation and oxygen therapy for treatment of patients with hypoxemic respiratory failure published by Wanfang database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Biology Medicine (CBM), PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science were retrieved. The retrieval time was from the establishment of database to February 1st, 2019. The indexes of the study outcomes included oxygenation index, arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO₂), endotracheal intubation rate, hospital mortality and intolerance rate. Literature search and data extraction was performed separately by two researchers. Quality assessment of literature was conducted according to the risk of bias criterion provided by Cochrane collaboration net. The extractive data were Meta-analyzed by RevMan 5.1.0. Funnel plot and Egger regression analysis was employed to detect publication bias. RESULTS: Six RCTs including 5 English studies and 1 Chinese study were selected. Finally, 547 patients were enrolled, with 270 patients in Helmet non-invasive ventilation group and 277 in oxygen therapy group. The study quality assessment revealed that the overall risk of bias was low, and no publication bias was detected by the funnel plot and Egger regression analysis. Meta-analysis showed that the oxygenation index in Helmet non-invasive ventilation group was significantly higher than that in oxygen therapy group [mean difference (MD) = 73.47, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 52.01 to 94.92, P = 0.000 01], and PaCO₂ (MD = -2.46, 95%CI was -4.54 to -0.39, P = 0.02), endotracheal intubation rate [relative risk ratio (RR) = 0.38, 95%CI was 0.20 to 0.73, P = 0.004] and hospital mortality (RR = 0.35, 95%CI was 0.19 to 0.65, P = 0.000 8) in Helmet non-invasive ventilation group were significantly lower than those in oxygen therapy group. There was no significant difference in patient's intolerance between the two groups (RR = 2.38, 95%CI was 0.74 to 7.67, P = 0.15). CONCLUSIONS Compared with oxygen therapy, the Helmet non-invasive ventilation used for treatment of patients with hypoxemic respiratory failure can effectively improve the oxygenation index, decrease the PaCO₂, reduce the endotracheal intubation rate and hospital mortality, and the patients are well tolerated to the Helmet method.
China ; Head Protective Devices ; Humans ; Noninvasive Ventilation ; Oxygen ; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic ; Respiratory Insufficiency ; Treatment Outcome

INTRODUCTIONRoad traffic accidents (RTAs) in Singapore involving children were evaluated, with particular focus on the epidemiology, surrounding circumstances and outcomes of these accidents. Key factors associated with worse prognosis were identified. We proposed some measures that may be implemented to reduce the frequency and severity of such accidents.

METHODSThis was a retrospective study of RTAs involving children aged 0-16 years who presented to the Children's Emergency at KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore, from January 2011 to June 2014. Data was obtained from the National Trauma Registry and analysed in tiers based on the Injury Severity Score (ISS).

RESULTSA total of 1,243 accidents were reviewed. RTA victims included motor vehicle passengers (60.4%), pedestrians (28.5%), cyclists (9.9%) and motorcycle pillion riders (1.2%). The disposition of emergency department (ED) patients was consistent with RTA severity. For serious RTAs, pedestrians accounted for 63.6% and 57.7% of Tier 1 (ISS > 15) and Tier 2 (ISS 9-15) presentations, respectively. Overall use of restraints was worryingly low (36.7%). Not restraining increased the risk of serious RTAs by 8.4 times. Young age, high ISS and low Glasgow Coma Scale score predicted a longer duration of intensive care unit stay.

CONCLUSIONThe importance of restraints for motor vehicle passengers or helmets for motorcycle pillion riders and cyclists in reducing morbidity requires emphasis. Suggestions for future prevention and intervention include road safety education, regulation of protective restraints, use of speed enforcement devices and creation of transport policies that minimise kerbside parking.

Accidents, Traffic ; statistics & numerical data ; Adolescent ; Automobiles ; Bicycling ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Head Protective Devices ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Injury Severity Score ; Male ; Motorcycles ; Pedestrians ; Prognosis ; Registries ; Retrospective Studies ; Severity of Illness Index ; Singapore ; epidemiology ; Wounds and Injuries ; epidemiology

Acute exacerbation(s) of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) tend to be critical and debilitating events leading to poorer outcomes in relation to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) treatment modalities, and contribute to a higher and earlier mortality rate in COPD patients. Besides pro-active preventative measures intended to obviate acquisition of AECOPD, early recovery from severe AECOPD is an important issue in determining the long-term prognosis of patients diagnosed with COPD. Updated GOLD guidelines and recently published American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society clinical recommendations emphasize the importance of use of pharmacologic treatment including bronchodilators, systemic steroids and/or antibiotics. As a non-pharmacologic strategy to combat the effects of AECOPD, noninvasive ventilation (NIV) is recommended as the treatment of choice as this therapy is thought to be most effective in reducing intubation risk in patients diagnosed with AECOPD with acute respiratory failure. Recently, a few adjunctive modalities, including NIV with helmet and helium-oxygen mixture, have been tried in cases of AECOPD with respiratory failure. As yet, insufficient documentation exists to permit recommendation of this therapy without qualification. Although there are too few findings, as yet, to allow for regular andr routine application of those modalities in AECOPD, there is anecdotal evidence to indicate both mechanical and physiological benefits connected with this therapy. High-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy is another supportive strategy which serves to improve the symptoms of hypoxic respiratory failure. The therapy also produced improvement in ventilatory variables, and it may be successfully applied in cases of hypercapnic respiratory failure. Extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal has been successfully attempted in cases of adult respiratory distress syndrome, with protective hypercapnic ventilatory strategy. Nowadays, it is reported that it was also effective in reducing intubation in AECOPD with hypercapnic respiratory failure. Despite the apparent need for more supporting evidence, efforts to improve efficacy of NIV have continued unabated. It is anticipated that these efforts will, over time, serve toprogressively decrease the risk of intubation and invasive mechanical ventilation in cases of AECOPD with acute respiratory failure.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Bronchodilator Agents ; Carbon Dioxide ; Catheters ; Head Protective Devices ; Humans ; Intubation ; Mortality ; Noninvasive Ventilation ; Oxygen ; Oxygen Inhalation Therapy ; Prognosis ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive* ; Respiration, Artificial ; Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Adult ; Respiratory Insufficiency* ; Steroids

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The ability to localize a sound source is one of the binaural hearing benefits in a horizontal plane based on interaural time difference and interaural intensity difference. Unilateral or bilateral asymmetric hearing loss will affect binaural hearing and lead to sound locating errors. In this cross sectional analytical descriptive study, the localization error was investigated when participants turned their heads to the sound source with closed eyes and after simulating unilateral hearing loss by placing earplugs inside the right ear canal. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This cross sectional analytical descriptive study was carried out on 30 right-handed adults, 22 female and 8 male (average: 25 years, standard deviation: 3.16). They were selected with the available random access method. Horizontal localization was evaluated with five speakers located at 0, ±30, and ±60 degree azimuths at a 1-meter distance from the examinee. Narrow-band noise signals were delivered at 35 dB SL in two “without earplug” and “with earplug” situations and the results were compared. The study was performed between September and December 2016 in Tehran, Iran. RESULTS: Significant differences were observed in localization errors between the “with earplug” and “without earplug” situations. The localization differences were greater for left-side speakers (-30 and -60 degrees) compared with right-side speakers (+30 and +60 degrees). The differences were more apparent at 4,000 and 6,000 Hz, which confirmed the effect of unilateral simulated hearing loss on interaural latency differences. CONCLUSIONS: Simulating hearing loss by using an earplug in one ear (right) increased localization errors at all frequencies. The errors increased at higher frequencies.
Adult ; Ear ; Ear Canal ; Ear Protective Devices ; Female ; Head ; Hearing ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing Loss, Unilateral ; Humans ; Iran ; Male ; Methods ; Noise

OBJECTIVETo investigate the clinical effect of postural correction training and helmet therapy in the treatment of moderate-severe positional head deformity defined as asymmetric head shape in infants.

METHODSA total of 31 infants who were diagnosed with moderate-severe plagiocephaly and/or brachiocephaly were enrolled. According to the different treatment methods, the infants were divided into helmet therapy group with 11 infants and postural correction training group with 20 infants. The cranial vault asymmetry index (CVAI), cephalic ratio (CR), and head circumference growth were compared between the two groups before and after treatment.

RESULTSCompared with the postural correction training group, the helmet therapy group had significantly lower CVAI and CR after treatment. The helmet therapy group had significantly better improvements in CVAI and CR after treatment compared with the postural correction training group (CVAI difference: 6.0±1.9 vs 0.7±0.8, P=0.001; CR difference: 0.047±0.009 vs 0.008±0.005, P<0.001). There was no significant difference in head circumference growth between the two groups (P=0.55).

CONCLUSIONSHelmet therapy has a significantly better effect in the treatment of moderate-severe positional head deformity than postural correction training in infants. Helmet therapy does not limit head circumference growth.

Female ; Head ; abnormalities ; growth & development ; Head Protective Devices ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Posture