Short Falls in Childhood Occasionally Cause Major Brain Injuries Because of Unusual Circumstances.
Journal
Pediatric emergency care
ISSN: 1535-1815
Titre abrégé: Pediatr Emerg Care
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 8507560
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
01 May 2023
01 May 2023
Historique:
medline:
1
5
2023
pubmed:
28
4
2023
entrez:
28
4
2023
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Records and imaging were reviewed for children younger than 6 years, hospitalized between 2015 and 2020 for major closed head injuries following less than 4-ft falls. Major injury was defined as intensive care admission more than 2 days, neurosurgical intervention, death, or disability at hospital discharge. Subjects were identified through Seattle and Spokane, Washington abuse consultations. Harborview Medical Center's trauma registry and Seattle Children's Hospital's Hemophilia Treatment Program and Radiology were searched for subjects. We identified 12 young children who sustained major closed head injury due to short falls. Seven developed major space-occupying epidural hemorrhages. One child developed internal hydrocephalus after intraventricular hemorrhage. One child with prior meningomyelocele, Chiari 2 malformation, and ventriculoperitoneal shunt developed shunt decompensation after an acute-on-chronic subdural hemorrhage. One child developed an internal capsule stroke because of a previously undiagnosed calcifying angiopathy. Another child developed space-occupying subdural hemorrhage associated with previously unrecognized platelet pool disorder. Only this child had abuse concerns, which were resolved with his coagulopathy diagnosis. One child had a diastatic skull fracture leading to pseudomeningocele.At Harborview Medical Center, 140 children were seen for short falls in the emergency department or inpatient service. Among the 40 needing intensive care, 4 (12.5%) had major injuries after short falls. Our hemophilia treatment program did not see any children who had sustained major injury following a short fall in a 5½ year period. Although young children rarely sustain major head injury following short falls, serious head injuries do occasionally occur because of unusual injury mechanisms or preexisting conditions. It is important to fully evaluate these patients to differentiate these unintentional falls from abusive head injury.
Identifiants
pubmed: 37115991
doi: 10.1097/PEC.0000000000002749
pii: 00006565-202305000-00007
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
335-341Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Disclosure: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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