Introduction: Pediatric emergency physicians commonly experience cases of infantile trauma as a result of a child falling from the arms or the back of a parent while the parent is operating a bicycle.
Methods: 1. We conducted a retrospective case-series study which included children younger than 1 year who were injured after falling from the arms or the back of the parent while the latter was operating a bicycle. 2. We conducted a dynamics experiment by recreating the circumstances of the accident using dummies representing a 6-month-old infant being carried on the back of the mother. We assessed the score of the Head Injury Criterion (HIC) and the maximum impact load on the head of the dummy infant.
Results: 1. We found eight injured patients, two of whom required intensive care. One of the latter experienced neurological sequelae. 2. The HIC score and the maximum impact load varied from 7.7 to 17.0 and 2.26 to 3.47 times the reference values for 6-month-old infants, respectively.
Conclusions: Our study revealed that a strong impact on an infant's head can result in severe head trauma due to the mechanics of the injury type studied. Preventive strategies for the safe transportation of infants are needed.
Keywords: Injury prevention; bicycle-related injury; head injury; infant; legal regulation.
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