The epidemiology and clinical characteristics of pediatric unintentional injury in South = The epidemiology and clinical characteristics of pediatric unintentional injury in South

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Introduction: Injury is the most common cause of death in pediatrics and adolescent. Most acute injured pediatric patients usually visit the emergency department. We investigated the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of unintentional injury pediatrics in South Korea. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study for 5 years. 117~139 emergency center data was registered to National Emergency Data Information System (NEDIS). Variables were age, sex, province (16 metropolitan and province), intention of injury, mechanism of injury, results of emergency care, results of hospital discharge and mortality rate. Results: Total 1,487,790 younger than 20 were included (19% of total ED patients younger than 20) for 5 years. Admission rate was 6.4% and ICU admission and emergency operation was 7.2% and 9.2% of admission patients. Figure 1 show ED visit, severe injury and mortality rate for 5 years. According to distribution of age group, 0~4 years was most common with 5,869 per 100,000 annual population (<20 years). Severe injury and mortality cases were most common in 15~19 years with 368 patients and 42 patients per 10,000 annual population (<20 years). Most common injury mechanism of less than 1 year was falls. Most common injuries of 1 year to 14 year old were collision and followed by slip down, penetrating injury or traffic accident. Of 15~19 years old, traffic accident was most common injury mechanism. Injury mechanism of severe injury was different with non-severe injury. Of severe injury by traffic accident, one third was pedestrian injury and one third was motor cycle injury. 15~19 years adolescents were 51.4% (3,731) of severe injury and motorcycle was most common injury in this age group (64.9%, male 91.8%). 1,486 patients were dead after ED visit unintentional injury for 5 years. 28.0% were dead before arrival on ED, 37.5% were dead after ED resuscitation and 34.5% were dead after admission. Conclusion: This is the first study about the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of unintentional injury pediatrics in Korean EDs. ED visit of unintentional injury children was increasing for 5 years. Average admission rate was 6.4% and mortality was 0.1%. 1~4 years children were most common group of ED visit and 15~19 years adolescent were most severe group for unintentional injury patients of ED. Injury prevention strategy could be build up evidenced by this epidemiologic study in South Korea.