Bicycle spoke injuries

Abstract

From our experience in the Emergency Room, we noticed that a relatively large number of children 2 to 4 years old were injuried while sitting behind their parent riding a bicycle. Their ankles got caught in the spokes of the bicycle's wheel, resulting in a variety of injuries such as skin laceration in the mild cases, but large hematomata and fracture of the distal tibia and fibula in the serious ones. After the initial treatment, a close followup was carried out until full recovery was achieved. In this paper we describe the mechanism of the injury and suggest a device to prevent it, and emphasize the long-term disability after this presumed "minor trauma."