Myasthenia Gravis

The reasons for singling out the motor-cyclist from among other road users have been given. He rides unprotected and runs a particular risk of injury. The importance of head injury in the mortality rate is obvious, and it is clear from the present trend of figures that any reduction in the mortality rate from head injury among motor-cyclists would not only benefit the group but have a very favourable effect on accident mortality as a whole. One further point which should be mentioned is the economic loss to the country of these young men. In this series of motor-cyclists with head injuries, 56% were between 16 and 25 years of age and 95% were between 16 and 45. This may be compared with an incidence of 27.9% in the 16-25 year group and 55.8% in the 16-45 year group among an unselected consecutive series of 1,000 closed head injuries from all causes. The country can ill afford the injury to and loss of life among these vigorous young men, many of whom are skilled or in training. During 1955, for example, 149 motor-cyclists were admitted to the male accident ward of the Radcliffe Infirmary alone with injuries of all kinds. There were nine deaths. All had head injury, which was the cause of death in seven.