Characteristics of severely injured children admitted to a Danish trauma centre

INTRODUCTION: The epidemiology of children admitted to Scandinavian trauma centres remains largely unknown. This study aimed to describe the characteristics of severe injuries in children admitted to a Danish university-level trauma centre. METHODS: A descriptive study of all severely injured (Injury Severity Score >= 16) children aged 0-15 years who were admitted to the university level trauma centre at Odense University Hospital, Denmark, in the 2002-2018 period. Data were extracted from the South Danish Register and from medical records. RESULTS: A total of 152 children were included. The median age was 11 (range: 0-15) years. Boys accounted for 57% of the cases. Accidents accounted for 99% of the cases. In the youngest age group (0-4 years), the majority of injuries occurred in domestic areas, in the daytime, in the summer and around the weekends. In the oldest age group (11-15 years), most injuries occurred in traffic areas, in the autumn, on weekdays and in the afternoon. In all age groups, the majority of lesions were sustained to the head/face/neck, limbs and thorax. The overall median number of days in hospital was six. Overall, 39 (26%) children died. Almost half of the injuries were traffic related and this proportion increased with increasing age group. One-third of the traffic injured children died. CONCLUSIONS: Based on a regional trauma register, we described the characteristics of severely injured children. The study included several aspects regarding injury pattern and severity, which may be useful for risk identification, prevention of accidents and for hospital resource planning.