Hitting the ground hard can be the culprit for many bicycle-related injuries — a traumatic brain injury (TBI) might result from smacking your head against the pavement and broken clavicles are common when cyclists extend their arms to break a fall — but research increasingly shows that handlebars should also be cause for concern because they can contribute to an array of injuries, many of which require significant medical attention.
For cyclists in the Bay Area, across California, the nation, and beyond, a handlebar injury can be devastating. Crashes between cyclists and cars can lead to a number of different injuries and handlebars may end up being a factor. Some of these injuries may be apparent at first, but many, because of their internal nature, may not be so obvious in the moments after a crash when adrenaline is high. Sometimes it takes a few hours or days to realize something is wrong.
Whether you’re involved in a crash, experience a bicycle malfunction, or another incident that leads to injuries, be aware that handlebars can cause bodily harm and know when to seek help. These injuries may require immediate attention and result in surgery.
Research: Urgency and Costly
While handlebar injuries may seem like a niche topic to study, some researchers are diving into the data to better understand how handlebars may contribute to bicycle crash injuries and outcomes. Few studies exist in adult populations, but information collected on children and handlebar injuries are extremely telling of what makes them so serious.
From 2006 to 2015, researchers estimated that around 2 million children in the U.S. sought emergency department care for bicycle-related injuries. A small but serious subset of those injuries were from handlebars.
“Despite its rarity, … a broad spectrum of serious injuries are caused by handlebars including intraabdominal organ injuries, traumatic abdominal wall hernias, bladder rupture, and vascular damage,” wrote a group of Michigan-based medical researchers in a 2022 scientific review paper.
They concluded that more than one-third of such injuries are so serious that they require surgery. Additionally, almost all pancreatic injuries in children are due to handlebars.
“The typical mechanism of injury occurs when a child riding a bicycle is stopped abruptly by an object, such as a rock or curb. As the child falls, the handlebar rotates towards the body of the child and strikes them on the way down,” the researchers write. “The child’s relatively thin body wall and larger surface area of internal organs place them at high risk of severe injury.”
While adults tend to have a more developed anatomy that can help protect internal organs, there’s still a chance that hitting the handlebars can cause damage.
The researchers also found that handlebar injuries are often costly. Those injuries, among children alone, were responsible for more than $9.5 million in hospital charges and potentially cost up to $10 million in lifetime medical costs, the Michigan researchers said in their report,
Medical bills, especially unexpectedly after a crash, can be a large burden to shoulder, and they shouldn’t be the responsibility for the person who was not at fault for the injury-causing crash. A personal injury case can help cover these costs.
The Bay Area Bicycle Law team always offers free consultations to talk about the best course of action. Call (415) 466-8717, email us at [email protected], or visit us online.
Recognizing handlebar injuries
Unlike a broken bone, an internal injury from bicycle handlebars may not be apparent. There are instances where handlebars can cause impalement, but they tend to be exceedingly rare. More often than not, the injury isn’t visible to the naked eye. In the hours or days following the crash, some symptoms may be persistent and can raise red flags that something is wrong with the body’s internal organs.
Potential symptoms that should not be ignored include:
- Fever
- Tenderness or pain in the abdomen
- Vomiting
- Redness or markings on the chest or abdomen
For adults and children alike these injuries may be hard to recognize and they can vary greatly, from gastrointestinal perforation to traumatic abdominal hernia to spleen laceration and more.
“Given the oftentimes, subtle presentation of thoracoabdominal handlebar trauma in children and its potential for significant morbidity, it is important for clinicians to be able to recognize injury patterns and presentations in order to achieve both timely diagnosis and clinical management,” the Michigan researchers wrote in their review.
However, these serious injuries are not always simple and easy to spot. Diagnosis may require many tests. Often, these injuries are emergent and may be diagnosed in an emergency department setting.
Getting a second opinion may be necessary in some cases — and even potentially life-saving. In one Canadian research study, children with handlebar injuries were more likely to be misdiagnosed. This can lead to more serious cases and longer hospital stays.
Medical researchers in Arizona published a report in 2023 that concluded “there is a risk of delay in imaging, diagnosis, and treatment of significant and sometimes life-threatening injuries” because the physical evidence of an internal injury is often underwhelming.
Much of the research around handlebar injuries instructs physicians to be suspicious when a case involves handlebars. They should delve deeper into investigating potential internal organ health problems. If there’s a chance that the handlebars of your bicycle were involved in your crash, you should include that in your explanation to health care workers because it might make the difference in catching internal organ damage before it becomes irreversible.