As the popularity of motocross has grown, so have the number of
sport-related injuries, especially among children and teens.
"When you race motorcycles on a dirt track at 40 or 50 miles an
hour, fly dozens of feet into the air, and are involved in
multivehicle crashes, the potential for serious injury is high,"
says Amy L. McIntosh, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon and sports
medicine specialist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. To find
out exactly how high, Dr. McIntosh and colleagues performed a
retrospective study of 249 pediatric motocross patients seen at
Saint Marys, one of Mayo Clinic's hospitals in Rochester, Minn.,
from 2000 to 2007. The investigators reviewed the type, severity
and mechanism of injury as well as the cost of care. Results of
the study, published in the December 2009 Journal of Pediatric
Orthopaedics, revealed that nearly one-half of the patients —
all 17 years of age and younger — required hospitalization and
an additional one-third needed surgery, mainly orthopedic
procedures. The avera