[Children with injuries treated in hospital emergency departments]

The aim of this study was to determine characteristics of injuries of children admitted to the Emergency Department (ED) of University Hospital Split, and also to define the mechanisms of injuries, as well as the type and severity of injuries. We evaluated 3,221 children with injuries treated in the ED of the University Hospital of Split in the period from January to July 2009. The following indicators were analyzed: age, gender, anatomic distribution of injuries, mechanism, Injury Severity Score (ISS) and the need for hospital and intensive care admission. Chi-square and Mann-Whitney tests were used in order to determine statistical relevance of the results. Boys were more often injured than girls (65.6%), and most of the injured children were older than 13 years (41.7%). The majority of patients (96%) had minor injuries (ISS < 10), and only 3.7% of patients were hospitalized. The majority of injuries were caused by falls (71.3%), and limbs were the most frequently injured body region (67.1%). However, road traffic accidents (RTA) required hospitalization more often than any other mechanism (25% of patients), and the leading injury in RTA victims was head injury (38% of patients). Older children were more susceptible to RTAs (64.5%), and the majority of children were injured as passengers in cars (36.4%). Children with head injuries, and those injured in RTAs, were more often hospitalized and more often admitted to intensive care unit than other patients. The most frequently injured body region in children treated in ED are limbs, and the most frequent mechanism of injury is fall. However, the most severe are head injuries, and the majority of severe injuries are caused by RTAs. These data are important for programs of injury prevention.