• Nam Yong Cho, Shineui Kim, Zachary Tran, Joseph Hadaya, Konmal Ali, Elsa Kronen, Sigrid Burruss, and Peyman Benharash.
• From the Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Laboratories (CORELAB) (Cho, Kim, Tran, Hadaya, Ali, Kronen, Benharash), David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA.
• J. Am. Coll. Surg. 2024 Mar 1; 238 (3): 254260254-260.

BackgroundIn recent years, the adoption of electric scooters has been accompanied by a surge of scooter-related injuries in the US, raising concerns for their severity and associated healthcare costs. This study aimed to assess temporal trends and outcomes of scooter-related hospital admissions compared with bicycle-related hospitalizations.Study DesignThis was a retrospective cohort study using the 2016 to 2020 National Inpatient Sample for patients younger than 65 years who were hospitalized after bicycle- and scooter-related injuries. The Trauma Mortality Prediction Model was used to quantify injury severity. The primary outcomes of interest were temporal trends of micromobility injuries. In-hospital mortality, rates of long bone fracture, traumatic brain injury, paralysis, length of stay, hospitalization costs, and nonhome discharge were secondarily assessed.ResultsAmong 92,815 patients included in the study, 6,125 (6.6%) had scooter-related injuries. Compared with patients with bicycle-related injuries, patients with scooter-related injuries were more commonly younger than 18 years (26.7% vs 16.4%, p < 0.001) and frequently underwent major operations (55.8% vs 48.1%, p < 0.001). After risk adjustment, scooter-related injuries were associated with greater risks of long bone fracture (adjusted odds ratio 1.40, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.70) and paralysis (adjusted odds ratio 2.06, 95% CI 1.16 to 3.69) compared with bicycle-related injuries. Additionally, patients with bicycle- or scooter-related injuries had comparable index hospitalization durations of stay and costs.ConclusionsThe prevalence and severity of scooter-related injuries have significantly increased in the US, thereby attributing to a substantial cost burden on the healthcare system. Multidisciplinary efforts to inform safety policies and enact targeted interventions are warranted to reduce scooter-related injuries.Copyright © 2024 by the American College of Surgeons. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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