Introduction: In this study, we aimed to emphasize the importance of preventive measures by examining the clinical features of the cases involving road-traffic accidents in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).
Materials and Methods: A total of 46 traffic-accident cases involving patients who were younger than 18 years and were admitted to PICU were examined retrospectively. The cases were evaluated for age, gender, the time and location of hospital admission, the type of accident, the sites of injury, the duration of intensive care, the requirement for inotropics, antiepileptics, antibiotics, transfusion, and ventilator, and mortality rates.
Results: The average age of patients was 8.54±5.17 years; 67.4% of them were male (n=31). The out-of-vehicle traffic accidents were the most common type of accidents (71.7%) while the in-vehicle accidents were the least common type (13%). The PICU admissions due to traffic accidents were more frequent in summer (34.8%) and autumn (32.6%). Of the patients, 28 (61.9%) had trauma in a single region, and 18 (39.1%) had traumas in multiple regions. Among those with single-site trauma, the most frequent trauma site was head and neck (32.6%). The most frequent complications during the PICU stay were cerebral edema (24.7%) and intracranial hemorrhage (16.9%). Seven patients have died (15.2%) due to the reasons, most of which (n=6, 85.7%) were out-of-vehicle accidents involving vehicle-pedestrian collisions.
Conclusion: The study indicated that males were more frequently involved in road traffic accidents and that pedestrians had higher rates of serious injury and mortality. More effective training programs, security measures, legislation, and structural improvements are required regarding traffic accidents.
Key words: Traffic accident; trauma; child; pediatric intensive care
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