Pattern of Head Injuries from the Fall in Pre-school Children

Introduction: Fall is a major cause of the pediatric head injuries, particularly in the children of younger age group. Considering all pediatric trauma, fall is the most common cause and accountable of unintentional head injury. Materials and Methods: A retrospective review of the pediatric patient of age 0-5 years admitted in Shri Guru Ram Rai Institute of medical and health sciences and Shri Mahant Indresh Hospital, Dehradun. It consisted of 100 cases of head injury due to fall from height in children aged 0-5 years who came for treatment. Results: Maximum number of the cases 69% from the high level fall (HLF) in which male children were 41% and 38% were female children. While in low level fall (LLF) group male and female children were 17% and 14%, respectively. In LLF group, max cases were 0-1 years of age group i.e. 48.39% on the other side in high HLF maximum cases were in the 4-5 years of age group i.e. 40.58%. Alone skull fracture was present in 39% cases, and intra cranial hemorrhage was 34%. While the combination of both skull fracture and intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) was present in 25.8% in LLF and 27.54% in HLF. In HLF 60.87% cases had injuries other than skull fracture or ICH. Linear undisplaced fracture was the most common pattern i.e. 68.42% in LLF and 61.70 % in HLF. Conclusion: This study showed that no age group up to the age of 5 years was spared from being fall with a peak incidence in the age group 0-1 years for <1 m fall and 4-5 year for more than 1 m fall.