Evaluation of the Affecting Factors for Pediatric Trauma Patients in the Adult Emergency Medicine Department: Preliminary Study

Aim: To evaluate the factors that affect pediatric trauma in the emergency department. Materials And Methods: Injured children aged 18 and younger presented to a community hospital-based ED during 3 months were analyzed as cross-sectional. Results: Mean age of overall sample was 7.44±4.54 and female victims were significantly younger than males. When compared the mechanisms of pediatric trauma, ground-level fall was found more often (60.7%) than other mechanisms. Pedestrian trauma was found 87.5% of Motor Vehicle Injury (MVI). Mean body weight of patients diagnosed with extremity fractures was significantly higher than the others. Mean age of patients suffered from head trauma was significantly lower than the others. Children hurt by falling TV, had significantly lower Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), Revised Trauma Score (RTS) and Pediatric Trauma Score (PTS) scores when compared to those with other mechanisms of injury. There was significant relation between the parents’ mean education times and the rates of admission into the hospital (5.80±3.31 versus 6.91±3.29 years). Mean monthly household income of 73% of patients was found to be less than 1000$. Conclusion: Age, sex, body weight, trauma mechanisms, low educational and socio-economic level of parents were seemed to be affecting factors of pediatric trauma. While ground-level fall was found the most common of trauma mechanism, TV falling was found as mortal injury in pediatric trauma. Also, pedestrian trauma was most common causes of MVI.