NCJ Number
204164
Journal
Child Maltreatment Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2004 Pages: 111-117
Date Published
February 2004
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This study evaluated injury causes and patient outcomes in young children with abdominal injuries.
Abstract
The study selected cases of blunt abdominal injury (n=927) to children ages 0- to 4-years-old from the National Pediatric Trauma Registry. Variables analyzed included age, sex, race, use of motor vehicle restraints, the mechanism of injury, concomitant injuries, use of resources during hospitalization, and outcomes. Children were classified into four mutually exclusive categories according to the nature of the concomitant injury: isolated abdominal injury; abdominal and skeletal injury; abdominal and TBI (all intracranial injury); and abdominal, TBI, and skeletal injury. Outcome measures included in-hospital fatality rates, discharge to rehabilitation facilities, referrals to rehabilitation services, and home nursing. Mechanisms of injury involved four categories: motor vehicle, child abuse, fall, and other. The findings indicate that the three most common mechanisms of abdominal injury were motor vehicles (61.27 percent), child abuse (15.75 percent), and falls (13.59 percent). Hospital use was higher in patients with multisystem injuries. Patient outcomes were more severe in abused children or those with concomitant central nervous system injury. These were the only variables independently associated with increased mortality in the sample. Child abuse, compared with falls, was independently associated with a six-fold increase in in-hospital mortality. Thus, child abuse, independent of other factors, worsened outcomes for the very young child with abdominal injury. 1 figure, 5 tables, and 23 references