Pediatric injuries after 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake: an epidemiologic study

PURPOSE: The 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake caused massive destruction in Türkiye. Children, as well as adults, were greatly affected by this earthquake, both psychosocially and physically. The aim of this study is to examine the pediatric injuries in this earthquake epidemiologically and to share the experiences of a tertiary center. METHODS: Pediatric patients treated in a tertiary center after the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake were retrospectively analyzed. The patients’ orthopedic injuries, surgeries performed during treatment, non-orthopedic injuries, presence of crush syndrome, and how the treatment ended were noted. Patients were examined in two groups: <10 years and > 10 years old. The types of injuries and treatments applied were compared between these two groups. RESULTS: In total, 216 pediatric patients with a mean age of 9.95 (range, 0–17) were included in the study. Of these, 122 (56.5%) were > 10 years, while 94 (43.5%) were < 10 years of age. Most common injuries were extremity/spine injuries (n = 181, 83.8%). When the two age groups were compared, the rate of extremity/spine injury in > 10 years group was found to be statistically significantly higher than in the < 10 years group (p = 0.028, Table 1). Crush syndrome (p = 0.024) and fasciotomy (p = 0.023) rates were also found to be statistically significantly higher in the > 10 age group. CONCLUSION: Although pediatric injuries are less common than adult injuries after an earthquake, the severity of the injuries are the same. The most common injuries are musculoskeletal system injuries. Unfortunately 4 children died in our hospital during treatment and 25 children suffered a limb loss. Because of that, orthopaedic surgeons have a key role to treat patients after an earthquake.