Retrospective evaluation of pediatric trauma patients: a single-center experience of a tertiary pediatric intensive care unit

Abstract

Aim: Due to the rapid development in pediatric critical care medicine, some past studies suggested that pediatric trauma patients have better outcomes such as lower mortality and lower length of hospital stay in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). In this study, we aim to describe the demographic, clinical features, mechanisms of injury, and outcomes of children hospitalized in our pediatric intensive care unit due to trauma. 
 Material and Method: We performed a retrospective evaluation of 60 pediatric trauma patients (between 0 and16 years of age) admitted to the PICU at University of Health Science, Sancaktepe Sehit Prof. Dr. İlhan Varank Training and Research Hospital from August 2020 to February 2022.
 Results: A total of 60 pediatric trauma patients were followed up in our PICU. The median age of patients was 17 (0-724) months with a preponderance of male cases (n:38, 63.3%). The median duration of hospitalization in PICU was 6 (1-46) days. According to the trauma type, the majority of the injuries were falling from a height (n:37, 61.7%).
 Conclusion: We would like to draw attention to the fact that head traumas due to falling were so common and also affect mortality. The lactate and the lactate/albumin ratio ​​of patients who developed mortality were significantly higher. Although there are studies on the association of lactate/albumin ratio with mortality in critically ill pediatric patients, we could not find any data on this issue in pediatric trauma patients in the literature. Our study will contribute to the literature on the relationship between lactate/albumin ratio and mortality in pediatric trauma patients. We suggest that the relationship between lactate/albumin ratio and mortality should be investigated in pediatric trauma patients with larger case numbers.