Epidemiological characteristics of Chinese paediatric traumatic brain injury inpatients.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of paediatric inpatients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in China. RESEARCH DESIGN: The Chinese Trauma Database (CTD), a nationwide register system based on hospital admission data, contains diagnosis and treatment information for trauma inpatients in over 200 military-managed public-service hospitals in China. Using the ICD-9 coding, the data for children with TBI aged 0-17 years between 2001 and 2007 were retrieved. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: The demographic characteristics, admission time, injury cause, severity and treatment outcomes of paediatric inpatients with TBI were analysed. MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: A total of 26,028 paediatric inpatients with TBI (69.52% male, 30.48% female) were included in the CTD. Motor vehicle traffic (MVT) accidents, falls and assaults were the primary causes of injury. Falls were the leading cause of TBI in children aged 0-4 years, and MVT was the leading cause of TBI in children aged 5-17 years. According to the abbreviated injury scale, 37.20% of the TBI cases were mild, 25.15% were moderate, 24.81% were severe and 12.84% were critically severe. CONCLUSION: Chinese authorities should develop targeted measures to reduce children injuries based on the leading causes of TBI in the different age groups, particularly MVT, falls and assaults.