Ouch! It’s no laughing matter
View(s):Television shows and movies may portray people getting hit in the crotch as comical, but it’s a serious issue that sends thousands of men and women to emergency rooms every year, according to a study. Bicycles, personal grooming accidents and unfortunately placed furniture have all been blamed for the eye-watering injuries.
One cause of groin damage is when people fall forward on their bicycles and land on the centre bar
The incidents can go on to cause people physical, psychological and reproductive problems later on, according to researchers from the University of California, San Francisco. They found that 16,000 Americans visit emergency rooms due to genital injuries every year.
Study author Benjamin Breyer, said: ‘To put this in perspective, the yearly incidence of these (injuries) is almost twice as much as dental injuries, and about the same as electrical and chemical burns.’
In the past, most research looked at severe genital and urinary tract injuries caused by major trauma, such as car accidents.
For the new study, which appeared in The Journal of Urology, Breyer and his colleagues decided to look at those injuries thought to be caused by common consumer products.
The team analysed a national database of emergency room visits caused by consumer products, identifying all genital injuries to men and women 18 years and older between 2002 and 2010. Overall, 142,143 injuries sent people to an emergency room over the nine-year period, which worked out to about 15,794 per year – a number that didn’t seem to change over time.
Sporting items were the most common cause of injuries among people of all ages. These included bicycles as well as basketball, soccer, football and baseball equipment. Breyer said one example of damage from a sporting item is people falling forward on their bicycles and landing on the centre bar. He said padding or cushioning could help avoid injuries.
Other accidents involved clothing, shaving items and bathing products, including men becoming caught in their trouser zips or people cutting themselves while trying to shave sensitive areas. ‘I was surprised to find how many injuries from bicycles, personal grooming and bathrooms there were. Those to me were unexpected,’ Breyer said.
The types of injuries also differed by age and sex. Men were injured the most, accounting for about two-thirds of the emergency room visits. Young people were the most often injured, with 18 to 28-year-olds making up roughly 40 per cent of the visits. Older people sustained only about eight per cent of the injuries, but were more likely to hurt themselves during everyday activities, such as taking a shower.
‘The next step is to get a little more information on the actual injuries, what happens to the patients and the mechanism of how it happens,’ Breyer said, noting that this could be used to develop programmes to prevent these injuries.
© Daily Mail
Follow @timesonlinelk
Related Posts:
A guide to raising a child safelyA new book titled ‘How to Protect Your Child from Injury’ aims to educate parents, paramedics and students of medicine ...
Lightning kills Korean tourists at Liptons SeatTwo Koreans were killed and three others injured when lightning struck while they were at a well-known scenic tourist spot, ...
‘Hot’ phone burns mobile user’s handRanga Duminda, from Gampaha, was ready to go to work at the Postal Department last Monday. His wife gave him ...
Victims of callousnessThe don't care attitude of drivers has resulted in many tragic deaths of elephants in the Karuwalagaswewa and Tabbowa areas ...
No go in blade-in-chocolate case as complaint is withdrawnThe man who swallowed a sliver of a razor blade embedded in a bar of chocolate last week has withdrawn ...