Boarding injuries: The long and short of It

Background: As the popularity of longboarding increases, trauma centers are treating an increased number of high severity injuries. Current literature lacks descriptions of the types of injuries experienced by longboarders, a distinct subset of the skateboarding culture. Methods: A retrospective review of longboarding and skateboarding injury cases was conducted at a level II trauma center over a five year period. Specific injuries in addition to high injury severity factors were calculated to compare longboarder to skateboarder injuries. Results: A total of 824 patients met the inclusion criteria. Patients ranged in age from 2 to 48 (M = 19.2, SD = 6.1), and 75.2% were male. Severe head fractures, traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) were significantly more common among longboard patients. All patients with an Injury Severity Score above 15 were longboarders. Hospital and Intensive Care Unit length of stay in days was also significantly greater for longboarders compared with skateboarders (p < 0.0001). Longboarders were significantly more likely to have a head fractures, TBI, and ICH than skateboarders (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Longboard injuries account for a higher incidence rate of head injuries compared to skateboard injuries. Our data show that a higher-than-normal index of suspicion should be maintained when caring for a longboard-injury patient, leading to a lower threshold for neuroimaging studies. Public health campaigns promoting helmet use, while pertinent to both skateboarders and longboarders, may significantly reduce TBI and head fractures when customized to the longboarding population.