A study in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine suggests that shell-and-mortar-style fireworks caused nearly 40% of injuries resulting in hospitalization.

The study, led by Dr Brinkley Sandvall, a plastic surgery resident at the University of Washington School of Medicine, reviewed 294 people admitted to Harborview Medical Center between 2005-2015 for severe fireworks injuries. Males made up 90% of the patients, and the mean age of participants was 24. In addition, children composed the majority of injuries by rockets (44%), and the majority of injuries to teenagers came from homemade fireworks (34%).

In many cases, severe firework injuries required multiple surgeries and caused permanent impairment, as with limb amputation or vision loss, explains a media release from University of Washington Medicine.

“We treated about 30 patients for hand injuries requiring surgery at Harborview alone during the July 4th weekend last year,” Sandvall states in the release.

The study was conducted with support from the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, UW Medicine departments of surgery, anesthesiology and pain medicine, the Division of Plastic Surgery and the Department of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health, per the release.

[Source(s): University of Washington Health, PR Newswire]