Brain Injuries in U.S. Youth Athletes Surge 60% in Nine Years

About 71 percent of all the visits recorded were among boys, according to the data. Most of those in the emergency room, about 71 percent, were 10 to 19 years old. Children under 9 years mostly sustained injuries from bicycling or playground activities. Older boys were mostly injured in football; older girls, mostly from bicycling and soccer, the data showed.

Head injuries contributed to football accounting for 57 percent of trauma-related sports deaths among youths from 1980 to 2009, according to an analysis published in the journal Pediatrics in June. Twelve percent of the 138 football deaths caused by neck or head injuries involved youths who returned to a game after a concussion, the researchers said, who warned that coaches, trainers, parents and students needed to be more aware of the dangers of head trauma.

At least 21 states have laws that pull student athletes from football games after a head injury and set procedures for allowing a safe return, the CDC said in June.

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