Considerations and Evaluations on Abdominal Trauma in Pediatric Age.

Abstract

Background: Trauma is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in pediatric age.
 Abdominal trauma is the third most frequent cause of trauma injuries in children.
 The purpose of our study is to discuss BATp epidemiology and its relationship with polytrauma, , to recognize and describe the mechanisms of blunt abdominal trauma in pediatric age and to identify the signs and symptoms that associate it.
 Material and methods: In this retrospective study we reviewed all patients with blunt abdominal trauma in pediatric age who presented in Emergency Department at the University Hospital of Trauma in Tirana, Albania in the period between December 1-st 2017 and June 24-th 2018. The sample in the study was taken randomly. The Injury Severity Score, Revised Trauma Score were used as important points to evaluate gravity of injuries, and method of treatment.
 The data was introduced in absolute and percentage values and Kendal's tau b correlation coefficient and the regression analysis was used to analyze and to find out any association among the dependent versus independent variable. The type of study is case control with two components; descriptive and analytical.
 Results: In the time period that we studied, about 25200 patients were presented in Emergency department and 6.68% of these cases were hospitalized. Most frequent causes were motor vehicle accidents (35.4%) and abdominal trauma comprised 25.8% of cases, whereas in children it comprised 13.7% of total pediatric trauma. We have found correlation between the injury severity score and complications rate (r = 0.254, n = 49, p <0.001), and injury severity score with length of hospital stay (r = 0279, n = 49, p <0.001).
 Conclusions: Blunt Abdominal Trauma in pediatric age is a serious threat to the health of the children. Their treatment should be carried out not only in tertiary trauma centers but in every regional hospital. The trauma score is very valuable to determine the gravity of the injury, method of treatment and is a predictive tool in trauma outcomes.