Mild Head Trauma in the Pediatric Population Aged Between 2 and 14 Years: Severity of the Access in Real Life Access the Emergency Department

Background: Head injuries represent one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in pediatric age (less than 15 years). In literature it appears that between one and five years, road accidents represent 9% of mortality, between five and fourteen years they represent 22%.

Objective: Describe the severity of the access for mild head injury in real life in an emergency room truma center 2 level

Methods: We enrolled patients aged ≥2 years but ≤ 14 years who are consecutively referred to our emergency room from January 1st to December 31st 2018.

Results: We enrolled 452 patients aged 2 years or older. 48.2% came from a domestic accident, 1.9% from violence by others, 7.9% from a sports accident, 14.6 from a school accident, 5.7% from a road accident, and the remainder from other causes. 99.5% accessed the medical examination with a low priority code and required low intensity of care, 0.44% required high priority for the medical examination and the overall 0.22% required medium or high intensity of care. 98.9% were discharged and only 0.2% were admitted for observation in pediatrics. The remainder preferred home observation despite medical recommendations. None of the patients had an elevated (yellow or red) severity code at discharge. 1.99% of patients had a re-visit within the next day and a complex of 4.86% within 5 days. None of the patients had complications due to the fall at follow-up.

Conclusion: The population that comes to the emergency room for mild head trauma in the pediatric population aged 2 years or older is large (about 1.23 accesses per day) but only in a low percentage, lower at 2%, requires hospitalization and medium or high intensity of care.