Pattern of injuries among children presenting with trauma at the emergency department of King Hussein Medical Centre, Amman

To study the types of injuries seen in children presenting to ER. A retrospective hospital-based study, analyzing the records of children with trauma who were seen at the emergency department at King Hussein Medical Centre Hospital in Amman the Capital City of Jordan, over one year from May 2004-March 2005. Two thousand one hundred and thirty nine children (3 months to 15 years), in term of age, sex distribution, place, type, mechanism of injury and admission rate were analyzed. The study showed that boys got injured more often in all age groups, and children between 5-10 years constituted the largest group of injured children. Burns and head injuries predominated in children below 5 years (mainly infants) and home was the commonest place of their injuries. The school age groups (>5 years) were involved in accidents at school, sport centers and on roads. Fractures and lacerations constituted the major types of injuries, fractures and sprains predominated in children over 5-years and increased with age. Admission rate was 19.50%, which was higher among the age group 5-10 years and was due to falls in 53.24% and to read traffic accidents in 31.18%. There is a need for urgent work to reduce the preventable causes of trauma. To identify the common causes of injuries among the pediatric population further studies are recommended, to help the decision makers find out methods to minimize accidental injuries in children. Keywords: trauma, childhood injuries, accidents Mary Slessor Journal of Medicine Vol. 5 (1), 2005: 66-7