Characteristics and injury severity score of childhood injuries at Emergency Department of Suez Canal University Hospital

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Injury is a leading cause of death and disability among children worldwide, Injury surveillance provides an understanding of the incidence, trends, and magnitude of injuries, identifies specific populations that have a higher incidence of injuries. To describe characteristics of childhood injuries and injury severity score of different types of childhood injuries at emergency department of Suez Canal University Hospital. A cross-sectional analytic study at emergency department in Suez Canal University Hospital targeted children aged ≤ 18 years presented with an injury from June 2013 to April 2014. The tool in the study was Global Childhood Injury Surveillance Instrument to interview the parents or guardians arriving with injured children. Of the total of 402 injured children, about 68.6% of motor car accidents (MCA) were males, (47.2%) occurred in children aged 12-18 years. MCA had the highest Injury severity score (ISS) which was 29.2±2.6. Most of falls (66.1%) occurred in children aged less than 6 years. 26.2% of burn had permanent disability and ISS of burn was 14.5±1.3. Most of accidental poisoning (78.8%) occurred in children aged less than 6 years with female predominance (63.6%). About 85% of poisoning had no significant disability. Childhood intentional injury represented 5.7% of all injuries and had ISS of 8.5±7.7. Falls are the leading cause of injury-related hospitalizations and emergency department visits among children in Suez Canal University Hospital (29.4%), while motor vehicle traffic crashes are the leading cause of death (57%).