Understanding the Burden of Pediatric Traumatic Injury in Uganda: A Multicenter, Prospective Study.
J Surg Res
; 300: 467-476, 2024 Jun 12.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38870654
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
Traumatic injury is responsible for eight million childhood deaths annually. In Uganda, there is a paucity of comprehensive data describing the burden of pediatric trauma, which is essential for resource allocation and surgical workforce planning. This study aimed to ascertain the burden of non-adolescent pediatric trauma across four Ugandan hospitals.METHODS:
We performed a descriptive review of four independent and prospective pediatric surgical databases in Uganda Mulago National Referral Hospital (2012-2019), Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (2015-2019), Soroti Regional Referral Hospital (SRRH) (2016-2019), and St Mary's Hospital Lacor (SMHL) (2016-2019). We sub-selected all clinical encounters that involved trauma. The primary outcome was the distribution of injury mechanisms. Secondary outcomes included operative intervention and clinical outcomes.RESULTS:
There was a total of 693 pediatric trauma patients, across four hospital sites Mulago National Referral Hospital (n = 245), Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (n = 29), SRRH (n = 292), and SMHL (n = 127). The majority of patients were male (63%), with a median age of 5 [interquartile range = 2, 8]. Chiefly, patients suffered blunt injury mechanisms, including falls (16.2%) and road traffic crashes (14.7%) resulting in abdominal trauma (29.4%) and contusions (11.8%). At SRRH and SMHL, from which orthopedic data were available, 27% of patients suffered long-bone fractures. Overall, 55% of patients underwent surgery and 95% recovered to discharge.CONCLUSIONS:
In Uganda, non-adolescent pediatric trauma patients most commonly suffer injuries due to falls and road traffic crashes, resulting in high rates of abdominal trauma. Amid surgical workforce deficits and resource-variability, these data support interventions aimed at training adult general surgeons to provide emergency pediatric surgical care and procedures.
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Bases de dados:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Surg Res
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Canadá