@article{ref1,
title="Understanding the burden of pediatric traumatic injury in Uganda: a multicenter, prospective study",
journal="Journal of surgical research",
year="2024",
author="Sabatini, Coleen S. and Ozgediz, Doruk E. and Kakembo, Nasser and Situma, Martin and Grabski, David F. and Ajiko, Mary Margaret and Kayima, Peter and Emmanuel, Adupa and Thomas, Hannah S.",
volume="300",
number="",
pages="467-476",
abstract="INTRODUCTION: Traumatic injury is responsible for eight million childhood deaths annually. In Uganda, there is a paucity of comprehensive data describing the burden of pediatric trauma, which is essential for resource allocation and surgical workforce planning. This study aimed to ascertain the burden of non-adolescent pediatric trauma across four Ugandan hospitals. <br><br>METHODS: We performed a descriptive review of four independent and prospective pediatric surgical databases in Uganda: Mulago National Referral Hospital (2012-2019), Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (2015-2019), Soroti Regional Referral Hospital (SRRH) (2016-2019), and St Mary's Hospital Lacor (SMHL) (2016-2019). We sub-selected all clinical encounters that involved trauma. The primary outcome was the distribution of injury mechanisms. Secondary outcomes included operative intervention and clinical outcomes. <br><br>RESULTS: There was a total of 693 pediatric trauma patients, across four hospital sites: Mulago National Referral Hospital (n = 245), Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (n = 29), SRRH (n = 292), and SMHL (n = 127). The majority of patients were male (63%), with a median age of 5 [interquartile range = 2, 8]. Chiefly, patients suffered blunt injury mechanisms, including falls (16.2%) and road traffic crashes (14.7%) resulting in abdominal trauma (29.4%) and contusions (11.8%). At SRRH and SMHL, from which orthopedic data were available, 27% of patients suffered long-bone fractures. Overall, 55% of patients underwent surgery and 95% recovered to discharge. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: In Uganda, non-adolescent pediatric trauma patients most commonly suffer injuries due to falls and road traffic crashes, resulting in high rates of abdominal trauma. Amid surgical workforce deficits and resource-variability, these data support interventions aimed at training adult general surgeons to provide emergency pediatric surgical care and procedures.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0022-4804",
doi="10.1016/j.jss.2024.04.043",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2024.04.043"
}