A review of the number and severity of injuries sustained following a single motocross event.

Background: Competitive and recreational motocross is an increasingly popular sport in Australia and worldwide. Children as young as 4-year-old can participate in this activity. It is recognised that this is a high risk sport despite the use of protective equipment and developments in course design. Injuries sustained range from minor contusions and fractures to severe life threatening spine and head injuries in adults and the paediatric population. In addition organised events can generate a surge of trauma that can burden small local hospitals, resulting in an unpredicted increase in the workload with subsequent delays to treatment. We present the trauma workload generated in a district hospital following a single motocross event.

Method: All patients attending a district hospital emergency department with injuries sustained during a single motocross event were identified through hospital and ambulance records. The nature of their injuries and the treatment required, the length of hospital stay and operative theatre time generated by their injuries were obtained from hospital and theatre records.

Results: 14 patients attended the emergency department over a 24-hour period, requiring 5 ambulances from the scene. 7 patients required hospital admission with 7 operations performed, consuming 12.2 h of operating theatre time and 21 days of hospital beds. 2 patients sustained head injuries requiring observation, one of which was transferred to a spinal unit for management of their spinal injuries.

Conclusion: Motocross is a popular sport and at times has unacceptable risks of injury in organised competitions, especially with regards to paediatric injuries. Better course design, restrictions on participant age and limitations in vehicle speeds may help reduce the number of severe injuries. These events can also generate a sudden trauma burden to local hospital facilities with knock on effects on waiting times for theatre and potentially compromising not only treatment of the injured participants but also the treatment of other patients in the hospital. Cooperation with event organisers may enable extra staff and theatre time to be arranged in advance but at increased cost to the local health services.