Background: Baseball is 1 of the most played sports among adolescents in the United States. Yet, youth baseball players experience the greatest numberoforal and facial injuries, compared to other athletes involved in other sports. Methods: The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System was analyzed for all hospital admissions for youth baseball athletes (5-19year-old) experiencing a baseball-related craniofacial injury. These included concussions, head contusions, head lacerations, facial contusions, facial fractures, facial hematomas, face lacerations, eye contusions, mouth lacerations, dental injuries, and neck contusions. Descriptive statistics were performed, and injury incidence was described by sport, injury type, and age group. Results: Nearly half of the injuries (45.0%) occurred among 10-to 14-year-old patients, followed by 5-to 9-year-olds and 15-to 19-yearolds. Of all age groups, the most common type of injury was facial contusions, compromising one fourth of the injuries. Other frequent injuries included facial lacerations (19.9%), facial fractures (19.7%), and concussions (13.4%). Conclusions: Overall, this analysis underscores the need for increased implementation of protective equipment, such as faceguards and safety balls. Although facial fractures are less common amongst the pediatric population, physicians and coaches need to be better educated about the most frequent injury patterns and management. Further prospective studies are warranted to better characterize these findings and to prevent injuries.

Introduction: Within the United States, the number of players participating in baseball increased by nearly 21% to 15.9 million between 2014 and 2019. Additionally, batting helmets with face-masks are encouraged yet optional in youth baseball as well as college baseball and softball. in light of inconsistencies in safety equipment enforcement and usage, this study aims to perform a comparative analysis of the number and frequency of baseball and softball-related craniofacial injuries (CFis). Methods: Data regarding baseball and softball-related injuries were gathered from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System database from 2011 to 2020. Craniofacial injuries were isolated and organized into 5-year age groups beginning with 5 to 9 years and ending with 25 to 29 years of age. Data was further stratified by location and type of injury. Injury types specifically reported in this study included concussion, contusion, fracture, and laceration. Results: Distribution of injuries across age groups differed significantly between baseball and softball (P < 0.001). When comparing the 10 to 14 year old group to the 15 to 19 year old group, we found that concussions and head contusions comprise a significantly greater proportion of all injuries in softball than in baseball. Conversely, facial fractures, facial lacerations, and mouth lacerations comprise a significantly greater proportion ofinjuries in baseball than in softball. Conclusion: Future prospective studies aiming to better characterize the within-game nature of these reported CFIs would certainly be beneficial in guiding the baseball and softball communities toward consideration of implementing maximally efficacious updates to current safety equipment standards.