Objective:

The purpose of this study was to determine the demographic characteristics and mortalityof the pediatric head trauma patients who presented to the emergency department.

Materials and Methods:

This retrospective observational study was performed in the tertiary care emergency department. All pediatric head trauma patients admitted to the emergency department between 1.12.2009- 31.12.2010 were included in the study. Patients’ demographic data, head computed tomography (CT) results and mortality rates were evaluated.

Results:

Four thousand, two hundred fifty seven patients were included in the study. One thousand, five hundred sixty three were girls and 2694 were boys. The mean age was 6.3±5.16, and the most frequent age range of trauma was 0-2 years (infancy). The major etiologic factor was falling down. Of the 4208 patients, (98.8%) were exposed to mild head trauma according to the Glasgow coma scale (GCS) score. The most frequent CT finding in 114 (3.2%) of patients was skull base fracture.

Conclusion:

Most of the pediatric head traumas were minor head injuries. Furthermore, most of them were falls from heights. The 0-2 aged patients especially were exposed to head trauma, unlike the literature. Motor vehicle accidents were the leading cause of trauma between 10-14 years pediatric patients in whom the clinical status becomes more critical. The most common cause of death was motor vehicle accidents in the study and the most lethal CT finding was subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Keywords: Pediatric, head trauma, emergency