Toppling TVs and Head Injuries in Toddlers

For most American families, television is a fixture in the home, with the average young child clocking 20 hours of tube time every week. Over the years, TVs have become increasingly larger, but because of their unstable shape, they can easily topple. Children caught under a falling TV may experience short-term trauma or long-term problems related to head injuries, say researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, in Canada.

Researchers identified 18 children who'd been injured by falling televisions between 1992 and 2001 and examined their medical charts to determine the severity of their short-term and long-term injuries. The average age of the injured child was just under 4 years.

Half of the children had been injured when the child pulled the TV onto himself or herself. Other children suffered injuries when TVs fell from dressers, when retrieving toys placed on top of the television, when changing a videotape, or when helping to move the TV. The falling televisions caused a variety of injuries. Sixteen children had skull fractures, with seven having multiple fractures, and some children also had bleeding or blood accumulation in the brain, nasal obstructions, hearing loss, and loss of facial nerve function.

Four of the children with TV injuries needed surgery, and the average hospital stay for children with these injuries was nearly 9 days. Over the long term, one of the children was severely disabled and needed a long hospital stay and rehabilitation, whereas other children continued to have nerve problems or hearing loss as a result of their injuries.

What This Means to You

The findings from this study show that toppling TVs can seriously injure kids, causing head and facial injuries as well as long-term disability and neurological deficits. Television tipover injuries can be prevented. First, be sure to supervise your child during TV time to reduce the risk of injury. And because TVs with bigger screens and smaller backs are unstable and more likely to topple, make sure that your television is properly secured to a stable stand or support system with anchors or furniture straps. Placing the TV on the floor or a low, sturdy stand may also minimize the risk of television tipover injuries. Despite their high cost, newer plasma TV screens may reduce the risk of TV injuries because they're lighter and often less accessible to kids.

Source: Raafat R. Yahya, MD; Peter Dirks, FRCSC; Robin Humphreys, FRCSC; James T. Rutka, MD, PhD, FRCSC; Michael Taylor, FRCSC; James M. Drake, FRCSC; Journal of Neurosurgery, September 2005.

Reviewed by: Steven Dowshen, MD
Date reviewed: November 2005

Note: All information is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor.

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