Pediatric transport related injuries in Tehran: the necessity of implementation of injury prevention protocols.

Prehospital and hospital data was prospectively gathered on all hospitalized trauma patients admitted to six major trauma hospitals in Tehran from August 1999 to September 2000. Data from patients of under 19 years of age was analyzed for this article. From 8000 hospitalized trauma patients, 2354 cases (29%) belonged to this age group. Fall and transport related injuries (TRIs) with 1074 (46%) and 921 (39%) cases respectively, were the most common mechanism of injury. In TRIs, boys were affected 3.5 times as often as girls. Younger children were more prone to pedestrian-related injuries while teenagers were more prone to motorcycle related injuries. Head trauma was the most common cause of death and 28 out of 32 trauma deaths were attributed to this kind of injury. Lower extremity (513) and head injuries (322) were the most common injuries. Only a few of motorcyclists and car passengers used safety devices (helmet and seat belt respectively) at the time of accident.

[1]  A. Adesunkanmi,et al.  Road traffic accidents to african children: assessment of severity using the injury severity score (ISS). , 2000, Injury.

[2]  M. Malison,et al.  Motor Vehicle Injuries in Taiwan , 1990, Asia-Pacific journal of public health.

[3]  C N Mock,et al.  Low-cost improvements in prehospital trauma care in a Latin American city. , 2000, The Journal of trauma.

[4]  F. Lewis,et al.  Can adult trauma surgeons care for injured children , 1991 .

[5]  P D Mullen,et al.  Motor-vehicle occupant injury: strategies for increasing use of child safety seats, increasing use of safety belts, and reducing alcohol-impaired driving. , 2001, MMWR. Recommendations and reports : Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Recommendations and reports.

[6]  J J Sacks,et al.  Pediatric head injuries and deaths from bicycling in the United States. , 1996, Pediatrics.

[7]  G S Smith,et al.  Unintentional injuries in developing countries: the epidemiology of a neglected problem. , 1991, Epidemiologic reviews.

[8]  F P Rivara,et al.  Epidemiology of transport-related injuries in Ghana. , 1999, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[9]  D Trichopoulos,et al.  Epidemiology of road traffic accidents during pleasure travelling: the evidence from the Island of Crete. , 1997, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[10]  A. Mazurek,et al.  Epidemiology of paediatric injury. , 1994, Journal of accident & emergency medicine.

[11]  M. Modaghegh,et al.  P REHOSPITAL T RAUMA C ARE IN T EHRAN : P OTENTIAL A REAS FOR I MPROVEMENT , 2002, Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors.