Pattern of childhood injuries in al-Thawra hospital, Sana'a, Yemen

Abstract AR

Objectives: To identify the common causes of injuries among children in this region and suggest preventative strategies.

Methods: This is a hospital based retrospective review of the files of children under the age of 14 years who presented to the general emergency department at Al-Thawra General Hospital with acute injury and were admitted to the hospital between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2004.

All charts were reviewed for age, sex, place and mechanism of injury, body area injured, and length of stay in the hospital.

Results: The total number of children was 421.

The mean age was 6.5 years (range 0-14), 62.2% (n=262) were boys and 37.8% (n=159) were girls.

The most common trauma type was head injury n=125 (29.7%).

The head injury was of two types; inflicted (intentional) n=112, (89.6%) and traffic accidents (accidental) n=13 (10.4%).

Among the inflicted type, contusion (33.03% in males, 11.60% in females) was the most common mechanism of injury, followed by falls from heights (FFH) 8.92% in males, 5.35% in females, then sharp objects (8.03% in males, 3.57% in females).

Roads were the most common place of trauma in the study, n=256 (60.80%).

In this category, 74(59.2%) of 125 head injuries occurred in roadways.

In the age group between 5-10 years, n=182(43.2%), the commonest cause of trauma was traffic accidents (69.23%); however, only 13 (10.4%) caused head injuries.

The head was the most common body area injured and the main cause of hospital admission (29.69%).

The mortality rate among the children was 35.15% (67.56% male, 32.43% female).

Conclusion: Traffic accidents (RTA), falls, and home injuries are the commonest causes of morbidity and mortality for children in our community.

The highest proportions of deaths and severe injuries were observed in the school age group.

Prevention strategies must consider this high-risk age group.