Injury patterns and outcomes of ice-fishing in the United States

Abstract

Introduction Fishing is a common pastime. In the developed world, it is commonly performed as a recreational activity. We aim to determine injury patterns and outcomes among patients injured while ice fishing. Methods Data on initial emergency department visits from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP) from 2009-2014 were analyzed. All patients with fishing related injuries were included. Primary endpoint was rate of admission or transfer. Secondary endpoints were defined a priori anatomical injury categories and patients were assigned into groups. Descriptive and power analysis was performed between patients with ice-fishing and traditional fishing related injuries. Results We identified 8220 patients who sustained fishing related injuries, of which n=85 (1%) involved ice fishing. Ice fishing injuries occurred primarily in males (88%) with a mean age of 39.4 years ± 17.5 (std dev). The most common injuries related to ice fishing were: orthopedic/musculoskeletal (46%), minor trauma (37%), and major trauma (6%). Hot thermal injuries (burns) were the fourth most common type of ice-fishing injury (5%) but rarely occurred in warmer fishing months (<1%, p=0.004). Cold thermal injuries (1%) and hypothermia (0%) were rare among ice-fishing injuries and immersion/drowning occurred in 5% of cases. The rate of admission/transfer was significantly greater in ice-fishing (11%) than the traditional fishing patients 3%, p<0.001), power was 89.7%. Conclusion Ice fishing is associated with more severe injury patterns and more thermal injuries and immersion injuries than traditional fishing. Providers and participants should be aware of the potential risks and benefits and counseled appropriately.

Development and Validation of Indicators for Population Injury Surveillance in Hong Kong: Development and Usability Study

“…The percentage of cases that requires operative intervention within a particular year Operative intervention [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] The percentage of cases that have any type of infection within a particular year Infection rates [28,[45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53] The percentage of cases admitted to the ICU within a particular year Admission rate to ICU a [30,32,33,35,38,44,[54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67] The cause-specific death rate per 100,000 population within a particular year Immediate mortality rate [32,…”

Fishing-Related Injuries Among Pediatric Patients Treated in United States Emergency Departments, 1997 to 2016

“…13,14 To our knowledge, only one previous study has investigated injury patterns associated with recreational fishing, with the primary analysis specific to ice fishing injuries. 15 In spite of the large number of young recreational fishing participants, there is a paucity of research available that describes characteristics of fishing-related injuries among them. This study aims to describe patterns of fishing-related injuries among pediatric patients treated in US EDs and examine trends over a 20-year time span.…”