Clinical Study of Pediatric Abdominal Trauma

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Blunt trauma accounts for approximately 90%of all pediatric injuries, with falls and motor vehicle collisionsrepresenting the most common mechanism of injury. Headand extremity injuries occur most frequently; however, injuryto the abdomen occurs in up to 8% of children and abdominalinjury is responsible for 9% of all trauma deaths. Study aimedto know the Nature of trauma, Mode of injury, Associatedinjuries, Investigative modalities and their relative accuracyin diagnosing blunt abdominal trauma.Material and methods: Analysis of 98 children admittedwith blunt abdominal trauma, from sep-2013 to jan-2016 wereincluded in this study and results were analyzed.Results: More than 40% of children are in 6 to 10 years.2/3rdof children are males. Blunt trauma is the commonest cause oftrauma. Accidental fall and RTA constituted 75.42% of cases.Polytrauma was seen in 41.8% of cases, head injury is thecommonest association. Out of 98 abdominal trauma cases,68 were managed conservatively and 23 underwent operativeintervention. Total 35 cases had injury to solid organ. Onlaparotomy bowel injury was found in 17 cases, solid organinjury was found in 27 cases. Bowel perforations were foundin 13 cases, most of them required simple closure in twolayers, 4 cases of ileum perforations with gangrene due tomesenteric tear required resection and end to end anastomosis.There were 3 deaths all of them had polytrauma with all the 3cases died during initial emergency resuscitation.Conclusion: Effective strategies, coupled with aggressivemanagement can reduce the mortality and morbidity. Nowis the time has to establish separate pediatric trauma units inall pediatric hospitals for effective management of injuredchildren.