Jul 16, 2019
Riding an electric scooter is fun and convenient. But it’s important to be careful, as accidents can result in serious injuries, such as fractures to the lower and upper extremities. Dr. Robert Golden discusses how we treat these injuries, as well as tips for riding safely.
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: MedStar Washington Hospital Center presents Medical Intel where our healthcare team shares health and wellness insights and gives you the inside story on advances in medicine.
Host: We’re speaking with Dr. Robert Golden, Chief of Orthopaedic Trauma Surgery at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Thank you for joining us, Dr. Golden.
Dr. Golden: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Host: Motorized scooters are a growing form of transportation in the US. You see people riding them all around the streets and in traffic. As a result, injuries are always a possibility. Today we’re going to discuss some of these injuries, plus some key safety tips. Dr. Golden, could you start by explaining some of the most common injuries you see from people riding motorized scooters?
Dr. Golden: Well, we’ve seen a fair breadth of different injuries from them. It’s not a typical single pattern that we’ve seen from them, which you see in some other injuries. With the scooters we’ve seen everything from upper extremity injuries to lower extremity injuries and pretty much everything in between. It seems like part of this is probably because of the different mechanisms where you can get injured while on these. Depending on how you get injured and what you were doing at the time, what happened can really change what gets hurt.
Host: Can you share some specific examples of some of these injuries?
Dr. Golden: Sure. We’ve seen a couple people who have just fallen off of them, from simply not negotiating a curve right or hitting a bump in the street or in the sidewalk. Some of them have had fractures of their upper extremities and to their arms. A couple of them had been open fractures, meaning the bone came out through the skin. A bunch of wrist fractures, as well, for the same reason. The other sort of spectrum that we see from these are when they’re hit by cars. Some of them have had lower extremity injuries, in mostly their legs and their tibias, the bone below your knee and above your ankle. Again, sort of the same kind of mechanism that they’ve either simply hit a bump or didn’t negotiate a turn quite right and just fell off. Or, they get hit by a car, which you can imagine causes a lot more injuries. Some of them simply get on them and don’t realize how fast they’re going. Then, in haste to sort of slow down or to make a turn, kind of jump off of them without really slowing down and realize they’re going pretty fast after they’ve jumped off.
Host: Can you think of some of the most frequent treatments you’ve given patients for their scooter-related injuries?
Dr. Golden: Sure. Well, a lot of that depends on what’s been injured. Most of them have, or at least a lot of them, I guess, have required surgery for them which generally would then involve realigning the bone and then stabilizing it either with a nail or plates and screws to hold it still and in the right position until the bone can heal.
Host: What are some tips you offer patients to help them avoid getting hurt while riding their scooter?
Dr. Golden: I think a lot of it is just knowing the capabilities of the scooters themselves and realizing if they’re new to riding these, they’re not exactly the same kind of scooters you were riding when you were little - the little Razor scooters and you would just kind of push them along. Some of them pick up a fair amount of speed - kind of realize that, at that speed, if you hit something or you get thrown off, there’s a good chance that you could injure something. And then, of course, it’s a pretty busy city down here and you always have to watch out for the cars and the pedestrians.
Host: Are there certain people you would recommend not to use a motorized scooter?
Dr. Golden: I think if you’re careful and know your capabilities, you’d probably be ok. Probably not a great idea for anybody with a history of osteoporosis or issues with their fragile bones to try them out. And, I think if you DO, you should just start off slowly, figure out how fast these go, make sure you can maintain control on them before you really see how fast they can go.
Host: Why is MedStar Washington Hospital Center the best place to seek care for any motorized scooter-related injuries?
Dr. Golden: Well, we have the MedStar trauma unit here which allows us to provide a comprehensive care from multiple disciplines. So, the orthopaedic surgery teams are involved, the general surgery teams are involved in case they have any other injuries - internal organs, that sort of thing. And, we’re also plugged in with the physical therapists, the occupational therapists, to get people back to their jobs, get back to walking, depending on which injuries they have, as well as the plastic surgery teams because sometimes these injuries, when the bone comes through the skin, creates a defect that needs to be covered. So, fortunately, we have everything all in one place and all the teams are coordinated so whatever injury you have, we can service.
Host: Could you share a story in which a patient received optimal care for a motorized scooter-related injury at MedStar Washington Hospital Center?
Dr. Golden: Sure. We had one patient who came in - again, same kind of thing - he was riding one of these and fell off of it. Had a fairly complex fracture of his...what’s called his tibial plateau, which is the top part of your tibia, right by your knee. He had to go through several surgeries until that could be stabilized. Eventually, it required some coverage by the plastic surgery team, so they took care of that for him, as well, and, eventually, healed that up.
Host: Can you explain what recovery typically is like?
Dr. Golden: I mean a lot of it depends on what’s broken. In general, bones take about 3 months to heal, somewhere around 12 weeks. Some bones heal a little faster, some heal a little slower. But, in general, they’re looking at some sort of immobilization. Or, once they’re fixed, the point of fixing them is to get them up so that they can move, minimize any stiffness. Usually there’s a short period of immobilization right after the surgery, just to let the wound settle down. Then that’s followed by getting them up and moving and making sure they don’t get too stiff on the joints near where things were broken. We see them back in the office during the entire time that they’re healing to make sure that everything’s healing appropriately, that it’s staying aligned the way we left it, make sure that there’s no other complications coming up or they’re having difficulty with anything else as a result of these things.
Host: Is physical therapy usually a part of recovery?...
Dr. Golden: Yeah, often they do get some physical therapy. Some of it depends on where they were injured and what the treatment was. In general, if it’s in the middle of what’s called a long bone, generally your femur or your tibia, and we can put a rod into it to fix it, they can get up very quickly and put weight on it right away and the bone just heals around it. So, some of those people require less intensive physical therapy because they can just kind of get up and start walking around on their own. Some of the people, where it breaks into the joint and it kind of shatters - it doesn’t break in to clean fracture lines - a lot of those people do require a fair amount of physical therapy to get their joints moving again, minimize their stiffness, rebuild the strength that they lose.
Host: Thanks for joining us today, Dr. Golden.
Dr. Golden: Thanks for having me.
Conclusion: Thanks for listening to Medical Intel with MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Find more podcasts from our healthcare team by visiting medstarwashington.org/podcast or subscribing in iTunes or iHeartRadio.