Playing Into Injuries: Paediatric Trauma in a Nigerian Hospital

Background: Childhood trauma is a common problem worldwide and a leading cause of death in developed countries. High number of paediatric traumas encountered in emergency department and orthopaedic clinic stimulated this study to find why many children are traumatized and to document the pattern of injury in Ado- Ekiti, NigeriaStudy design: This is a six-month prospective study in a secondary hospital. Seventy- seven consecutive paediatric trauma patients seen at the emergency department were studied. Interviews were conducted with injured children, their relatives or guardians to obtain data. Obtained information included biodata, site and type of injury, part of the body injured and the presence of adult supervision during peer playing. Forty-one patients were treated as out-patients and thirty six patients were admitted and followed up while on admission. Both groups of patients were followed up in the out-patient clinics.Result: The 77 patients formed 14.7% of trauma patients seen inthe Emergency department during the study period. The femaleswere 23 and males 54 with female: male ratio of 1: 2.4. The ageranged between 7 months and 14 years. The mean age was 7.8±4.0 years. Of the 77 paediatric trauma patients, 61 (79.3%)sustained injuries during unsupervised peer playing.Conclusion: Unsupervised peer playing accounted for high proportion of paediatric injury in our environment and these injuries could be prevented if the parents at home, teachers at school and available adults would carefully monitor the playing children