Long-term Mortality in Pediatric Firearm Assault Survivors: A Multicenter, Retrospective, Comparative Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVES: The objective was to determine whether children surviving to hospital discharge after firearm assault (FA) and nonfirearm assault (NFA) are at increased risk of mortality relative to survivors of unintentional trauma (UT). Secondarily, the objective was to elucidate the factors associated with long-term mortality after pediatric trauma. METHODS: This was a multicenter, retrospective cohort study of pediatric patients aged 0 to 16 years who presented to the three trauma centers in San Francisco and Alameda counties, California, between January 2000 and December 2009 after 1) FA, 2) NFA, and 3) UT. The Social Security Death Master File and the California Department of Public Health Vital Statistics (2000-2014) were queried through December 31, 2014, to identify those who died after surviving their initial hospitalization and to delineate cause of death. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression was performed to determine associations between exposure to assault and long-term mortality. RESULTS: We analyzed 413 FA, 405 NFA, and 7,062 UT patients who survived their index hospital visit. A total of 75 deaths occurred, including 3.9, 3.2, and 0.7% of each cohort, respectively. Two-thirds of all long-term deaths were due to homicide. After multivariate adjustment, adolescent age, male sex, black race/ethnicity, and public insurance were independent risk factors for long-term mortality. FA (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] = 1.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.82-4.0) and NFA (AHR = 1.9, 95% CI = 0.93-3.9) did not convey a statistically significant difference in risk of long-term mortality compared to UT. Being assaulted by any means (with or without a firearm), however, was an independent risk factor for long-term mortality in the full study population (AHR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.01-3.4) and among adolescents (AHR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.01-3.6). CONCLUSION: Children and adolescents who survive assault, including by firearm, have increased long-term mortality compared to those who survive unintentional, nonviolent trauma.

Pediatric observation units.

Pediatric observation units (OUs) are hospital areas used to provide medical evaluation and/or management for health-related conditions in children, typically for a well-defined, brief period. Pediatric OUs represent an emerging alternative site of care for selected groups of children who historically may have received their treatment in an ambulatory setting, emergency department, or hospital-based inpatient unit. This clinical report provides an overview of pediatric OUs, including the definitions and operating characteristics of different types of OUs, quality considerations and coding for observation services, and the effect of OUs on inpatient hospital utilization.