Summary

This study aims to analyze the associated activity of injuries for shoulder dislocation emergency department admissions and assess variance amongst different age groups.

Abstract

Background

Shoulder dislocations are a common cause of orthopaedic related emergency department admissions. This study aims to analyze the associated activity of injuries for these admissions and assess variance amongst different age groups.

Methods

The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database was used to identify all patients who visited an emergency department between 2017-2021 due to a shoulder dislocation resulting from sports or recreational equipment.

Results

The NEISS weighted and adjusted estimate provided an automatically generated calculation of 170,328 shoulder dislocations across the United States annually due to sports or recreational equipment (95% confidence interval: 137,288-203,367). Between 2017-2021, there were 4,397 shoulder dislocations occurring due to a mechanism of injury related to sports or recreational equipment reported by the NEISS query. The distribution of cases over the five-year period was 21.7% in 2017, 19.1% in 2018, 19.8% in 2019, 17.6% in 2020, and 21.7% in 2021. The mean age was 27.1±15.7 and 84.4% (N=3,709) were male. The top ten most common mechanisms of shoulder injury were basketball (16.8%), football (11.4%), bicycling (8.8%), exercise (6.9%), soccer (4.8%), skateboarding (3.6%), weight lifting (3.3%), baseball (2.7%), swimming (2.7%), and volleyball (2.4%). Stratifying patients by age demonstrated variation among mechanisms of shoulder dislocation. Amongst young patients (<18years) the most common activities were football (26.8%), basketball (20.3%), and soccer (5.7%). The most common activities for patients 18-25years were basketball (25.3%), football (7.6%), and soccer (6.1%). Most common activities for patients 26-36years were basketball (11.3%), bicycling (10.4%), and exercise (10.3%). Most common activities for patients 37-50years were bicycling (21.0%), exercise (11.1%), and basketball (6.4%). For older patients (>50years) the most common activities were bicycling (27.2%), exercise (14.9%), and fitness equipment related injuries (6.4%).

Conclusion

Shoulder dislocations are a common cause of emergency department admissions. Activity of injury varies dependent on age cohort. Future interventions to reduce shoulder dislocations should be age and activity of injury specific.