Toppling televisions are causing an increasing number of severe neck and head injuries in small children, Reuters reported.

Canadian researchers reveal that the rate of these injuries has increased in the last decade and is expected to continue rising as TVs are becoming increasingly large and affordable. TVs are found in 95 percent of Canadian households, and many aren't properly fixed to walls or stable bases. As TVs become heavier, they're more likely to cause fractures and intracranial hemorrhages, which can be fatal.

"The vast majority (of these accidents) are preventable with very simple measures to avoid these events, which are always tragic," Dr. Michael Cusimano, lead author of the study and a neurosurgeon at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, told Reuters Health.

For the study, researchers reviewed 29 studies from seven countries analyzing TV-related head and neck injuries that involved more than 42,000 "TV-toppling injuries," UPI reported. They found that 84 percent of reported injuries occurred at home, with three-fourths of these injuries not witnessed by adult caregivers.

"TVs are often placed on unstable bases, placed on high furniture like dressers, which aren't designed for TVs, or not properly secured to the wall," Cusimano said in a statement. "Meanwhile, parents are getting busier and busier and don't have as much time to supervise children, so it's not surprising that these injuries are getting reported more often."

Their analysis also found that children between 2 and 5 years old have significant exposure to TVs - spending more than 32 hours per week in front of TVs -- making them susceptible to these sorts of injuries.

"Too many children are sustaining head trauma from an easily preventable TV toppling event," Cusimano said. "We hope clinicians take a more active role as advocates for prevention of these injuries, legislators become more open to implementing changes to current regulations, and caregivers employ the suggested prevention strategies at home."

The findings are detailed in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.