Analysis of Firework-Related Injuries to the Upper Extremity in the United States: 2011-2020

The purpose of this study is to examine and characterize patterns of injury to the upper extremity caused by fireworks in a nationally representative sample of emergency department patients from 2011 to 2020.

The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System was queried for upper-extremity injuries caused by fireworks between 2011 and 2020.

One thousand two hundred fifty-one injuries were identified from the database representing 47,235 national cases that presented to emergency departments in the United States. Case frequency was stable during the period until 2020, which was nearly 70% higher than the previous 9-y average. Patients were generally young and male, with most cases in the 10-29-y age group and males over three times as likely to be injured as females. The most common injury was burn, and the week of July 4th accounted for 53% of cases alone. Diagnosis was also significantly associated with device type.

These data can be used to target prevention measures and campaigns to specific patient populations most at risk of injury, specifically young males. They may also be used to highlight the impact of policy changes on availability of fireworks, the need for public health education coinciding with injury incidence peaks, and secondary pandemic effects.