Helmeted bicycle riders have significantly reduced severity of injury after an accident

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/acos-hbr100115.php

Public Release: 8-Oct-2015
Helmeted bicycle riders have significantly reduced severity of injury after an accident
A new study indicates an injury protection need to make cyclists' helmets more protective and helmet laws stricter
American College of Surgeons

Helmeted bicycle riders have a 58 percent reduced odds of severe traumatic brain injury after an accident compared to their non-helmeted counterparts, according to researchers from the University of Arizona, Tucson. Their findings were presented today during the 2015 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons.

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"We know for a fact that helmets help you prevent head bleeds in case you get into a bicycle-related accident," said Ansab Haider, MD, one of the study coauthors. "But the real question was, if you get into a bicycle-related accident and end up with a head bleed, does helmet use somehow protect you?"

The researchers found that among this group of patients--those who sustained traumatic brain injury after a bicycle related accident--the ones wearing helmets had a 58 percent reduced odds of severe traumatic brain injury and a 59 percent reduced odds of death. Further, the use of helmets reduced by 61 percent the odds of craniotomy (an operation to remove part of the bone from the skull to expose the brain) and facial fractures by 26 percent.

"If you are severely injured and you were wearing a helmet, you are going to fare better than if you were not," said Bellal Joseph, MD, FACS, lead study author. "When you hone in on that severe group of people who actually developed a brain injury, and then look at how they did, the helmet really made a difference."

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The researchers also found that in the patients they studied, the likelihood of facial fractures was higher for those who weren't wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. Dr. Haider said that helmet use helped prevent fractures to the upper part of the face, including the area around the eyes, the orbital lobe. However, helmet use wasn't as effective at preventing fractures to the lower part of the face, such as mandibular jaw or nasal fractures.

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