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Abstract
Background: Fall is a common mechanism of injury (MOI) in young children and an important risk factor for traumatic brain injury (TBI). Most children who fall have a minor head injury (MHI), defined as a blunt head trauma that occurred in a patient who is conscious and responsive.
Objective: To seek a possible association between MOI and injury severity.
Methods: A single centre cohort study was conducted. Data were collected on patients aged 0–2 years with MHI. Clinically-significant TBI (csTBI), defined as head injury resulting in death, intubation or neurosurgery, was the primary outcome measure. Traumatic finding on CT scan (TFCT) was the secondary outcome measure.
Results: Five hundred and ninety-five patients were analysed. Eight types of falls were identified: from ground-level, down stairs, from a bed, from a changing table, from furniture, from adult-hold, from a playground-device and from a stroller/baby-carriage. One patient (0.16%) had csTBI. Thirty-one (5.2%) underwent CT scans, TFCT was diagnosed in 17 (2.8%) patients; 10 (1.7%) linear skull-fractures, two (0.3%) depressed skull-fractures and five (0.8%) intracranial haemorrhages. Regression analysis did not reveal a statistically significant association between any of the MOI and the presence of TFCT.
Conclusions: The risk for csTBI was low and no association was found between MOI and injury severity.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors declare that they do not have any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work.
A research grant was provided by ‘Safe Kids Israel’. The sponsors had no role in study design, conduct, data collection, analysis and report. The corresponding author had access to all the data and takes full responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.