Adolescent Patients Pose Particular Problems; Physical Fitness May Help Prevent Injuries

Abstract

TO EMERGENCY medicine physicians, adolescence is that great watershed when youngsters stop coming in because they fell out of a tree or off a skateboard and instead present with injuries from motor vehicle crashes. Teenagers also get hurt on the job, in the military, at home, and during recreation. Injuries account for more than three fourths of all deaths in the age group between 15 and 19 years in the United States and represent 44% of the hospitalization days and 48% of emergency department visits. In response to this, the American Medical Association recently held a conference in Chicago on unintentional injuries in adolescents. (Please see accompanying article.) But even though the adolescent may sustain injuries typical of an adult, in the words of William J. Pokorny, MD, he or she still has the mentality and very limited experience of the child. Pokorny, an associate professor of medicine at Baylor