Emergent Pediatric Head and Neck Toy Injury Incidence from 2014-2023

Introduction: Common causes of pediatric emergency room presentations are injuries from toys. This study examines trends in pediatric head and neck toy injuries by estimating emergent pediatric head and neck toy injuries using the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database.

Methods: NEISS was queried for emergency department (ED) visits of pediatric head and neck injuries with toys from 2014-2023. Data used includes patient demographics, year of injury, age at injury, type of injury, location of injury on body, patient outcome, and a 1-2 sentence description of the event.

Results: The query resulted in 28,473 injuries and is considered a representative sample of the national estimate of 898,196 injuries over the ten-year period. Ages 2-4 and 5-9 were most commonly injured, and 65.0% were male. The most frequent injuries were laceration (41.56%), foreign body (18.85%), and contusions/abrasions (15.54%). 96.73% of patients were discharged after treatment or examination and 1.26% were admitted. 1.44% of patients left AMA, and 0.21% were held for observation. A wide variety of toys were seen, but the most common include 8% stand up non-powered scooter, 7% bouncy ball, 6% building sets, and 5% toy vehicles.

Conclusions: The consistently high yearly presentation numbers, along with only a mild decrease that has stabilized post-COVID suggests further revision of toy safety guidelines is needed. As scooters are the most commonly implicated toy in pediatric head and neck injuries, helmet wearing must be emphasized to promote public safety with increasing use of motorized scooters in the US.