2023 catastrophic Turkey earthquake: clinical outcomes of pediatric patients rescued under the rubble

ABSTRACT

Objectives

Children are the most vulnerable population affected by the earthquake. We aimed to examine the characteristics, morbidity, mortality, and the factors affecting these pediatric earthquake victims to guide the follow-up of pediatric patients who were rescued under the rubble in possible future disasters.

Methods

This is a retrospective observational study. The files of pediatric earthquake victims aged 0–18 years who were admitted to Adana City Training and Research Hospital between 6 February-30 April 2023 were analyzed. 318 patients were included in the study.

Results

Of all patients 48.7% (n = 155) were female and 51.3% (n = 163) were male. The mean age of the patients was 114.8 months. 65.4% (n = 208) of the patients were discharged from our hospital, eighteen patients (5.7%) died. Information on the hour when the patients were rescued under the rubble could be reached in 117 (36.8%) patients. The mean rescue time of these patients was 50.5 hours. 62 (53%) victims were rescued in the first 24 hours after the earthquake. There were 111 patients (34.9%) with fractures. There were 118 patients (37.1%) who underwent fasciotomy surgery. The total number of patients with amputation was 48 (15.1%). There were 36 patients (11.3%) with one limb amputated, 12 patients (%3.7) with more than one limb amputation. Internal organ injury was present in 30.5% (n = 97) of the patients. Of these patients, 85.6% (n = 83) had single organ trauma and 14.4% (n = 14) had multiple organ trauma. There were 58 patients (18.2%) with acute renal failure in follow-up. The mean rescue time for patients with amputation was 83.65 ± 62.9 hours, and for patients without amputation was 36.44 ± 50.6 hours. This difference was statistically significant (p = 0.001). No statistically significant difference was found when the ages of the patients were compared to fasciotomy, amputation, and fracture status.

Conclusion

While evaluating earthquake-induced trauma, pediatric patients should be approached carefully.

KEYWORDS:

• Earthquake
• Turkey
• disaster
• pediatrics
• injury

Declaration of financial/other relationships

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

Study conception and design: Ayşe Hitay Telefon, Ümit Çelik. Data collection: Elif Afat Turgut, Tuğba Kandemir Gülmez, Gülsüm Sönmez. Analysis and interpretation of results: Merve Kılıç Çil, Sevgin Taner. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Ethics statement

Ethics committee approval was received for the study at the meeting of Adana City and Education Research Hospital Clinical Research Ethics Committee dated 25 May 2023 (Decision no: 2592).

Additional information

Funding

This article was not funded.