Pediatric Surgeon-led Management of Abdominal Trauma: An Audit from an African Nation

The aim is to provide an overview of our early experience in pediatric surgeon-directed management of abdominal trauma presenting to a University Hospital.

Retrospective analysis of the data from all children presented with abdominal trauma (<14 years of age) who needed hospital admission and were listed on the trauma registry between May 2021 and May 2022.

One hundred and twenty children, 88 (73.3%) males and 32 (26.7%) females, were identified. The median age was 6 years. Out of the 120 patients, 8 (6.66%) presented with penetrating abdominal injury and 112 (93.33%) presented with blunt abdominal injuries. The principal mechanism of blunt injury was road traffic accidents (RTAs) (44.6%). The most frequently affected abdominal organ was the spleen (33.8%). Twenty patients (16.6%) underwent surgery, and the rest (83.4%) were managed conservatively. The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 5%, with a median length of stay of 5 days. The highest mortality was among patients with bowel injury (66.7%).

The patterns of injury in the pediatric trauma population are comparable to those in other African pediatric trauma centres. RTAs remain the most common cause of injury. Operative management is similar to international standards. Mortality is high compared to high-income countries and some low-medium income countries as well.