Study Characterizes Pediatric Patients Self-Presenting With Major Trauma
MONDAY, Oct. 21, 2024 -- Pediatric patients self-presenting with injuries consistent with major trauma typically have external signs of injury, notably boggy swelling to the head, abdominal bruising, and thigh swelling, according to a study presented at the European Emergency Medicine Congress, held from Oct. 13 to 16 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Robert Hirst, from Bristol Royal Infirmary in the United Kingdom, and colleagues reported outcomes for pediatric patients presenting with injuries consistent with major trauma between Aug. 5, 2020, and May 6, 2022.
Through the study period, 153 major trauma patients presented to the emergency department, with 24 self-presenting who were eligible for inclusion. The researchers found that the mean patient age was 6.22 years, and 75 percent were male. The mean time to be seen was 58.5 minutes; none of the patients received trauma team activation. The mechanism of injury was mainly falls, sporting injuries, bicycle injuries, and being dropped (50, 25, 8.3, and 4.2 percent, respectively); 12.5 percent of injuries (three patients) were unexplained. Most injuries (95.8 percent) involved a single body region, mainly head injuries (54.2 percent); 33.3 and 12.5 percent were extremity injuries and intra-abdominal injuries, respectively. The median Abbreviated Injury Scale was 3, and median Injury Severity Score was 9. Six children scored >15, classified as major trauma. Most of the patients (91.6 percent) had obvious external signs of injury, notably boggy swelling to head, abdominal bruising, or thigh swelling/deformity; most had relatively unremarkable clinical observations.
"Adoption of simple triage alerts for the three key features identified to prompt immediate senior clinician review might improve management of this group by triggering appropriate trauma team allocation and appropriate allocation of resources for this high-risk population," the authors write.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Read this next
Lung Cancer Screening Beneficial to Age 80 for Candidates Fit for Surgery
FRIDAY, Sept. 12, 2025 -- People aged 75 to 80 years at last screen who are diagnosed with screen-detected lung cancer (LC) have lower overall survival, but those undergoing...
Sex Differences Seen in Characteristics, Course of Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder
FRIDAY, Sept. 12, 2025 -- Significant sex differences are seen in the characteristics and course of schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD), according to a study published...
Potentially Inappropriate Medications Linked to Frailty at Cancer Diagnosis
FRIDAY, Sept. 12, 2025 -- For patients with newly diagnosed cancer, an increasing number of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs), as identified by the Geriatric Oncology...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.