Pediatric abdominal trauma in a National Referral Hospital

BACKGROUND: Trauma is a major contributor to pediatric morbidity and mortality. Injury and violence are a major killer of children throughout the world. Unintentional injuries account for almost 90% of these cases. They are the leading cause of death for children aged 10–19 years. More than 95% of all injury deaths in children occur in low income and middle-income countries. Abdominal trauma is present in approximately 25% of pediatric patients with major trauma and is the most common cause of unrecognized fatal injury in children. OBJECTIVES: To describe the patterns, the management and outcomes of pediatric abdominal trauma. This was a descriptive retrospective study. Data was extracted from the Pediatric surgery Unit database from January 2012 to July 2019 on all abdominal trauma admissions to the unit. RESULTS: Falls were the commonest (51.3%) mechanism for trauma on the unit. Most (84%) of the admissions had blunt abdominal trauma, with the majority (77%) managed non operatively. Only 16% had penetrating trauma, with the majority (84%) of these managed operatively. The average length of hospital stay for most (71.9%) of the patients was less than 7 days, with 96.1% of all admitted patients being discharged upon recovery. CONCLUSION: Blunt abdominal trauma is the most common pattern of pediatric abdominal trauma, with majority of these patients being managed non-operatively with good outcomes. Selective non-operative management for penetrating pediatric abdominal trauma has good patient outcomes as well.