Pediatric trauma is very much a surgical disease.

OBJECTIVE: The evolution of nonoperative management of certain solid visceral injuries has stimulated speculation that management of the severely injured child is no longer a surgical exercise. The authors hypothesized that the incidence of injuries that require surgical evaluation is disproportionately high in children at risk of death or disability from significant injury.

METHODS: National Pediatric Trauma Registry data were queried for all patients with ICDA-9-CM diagnoses requiring at least surgical evaluation. Selected diagnoses included CNS: 800 to 804, 850 to 854; thoracoabdominal: 860 to 870; pelvic fracture: 808; and acute vascular disruption: 900 to 904. Operative intervention was identified by ICDA-9-CM operative codes less than 60 and selected operative orthopedic codes between 79.8 and 84.4. At-risk patients were identified as those with at least one of the following: Glasgow Coma Scale score less than 15, Glasgow Coma Scale motor score less than 6, initial systolic blood pressure less than 90, or Injury Severity Scale score more than 10. The incidence of a surgical diagnosis in at-risk children was compared to the incidence in the population with no identifiable risk. Within the population undergoing surgical evaluation, resource utilization, as reflected by operative intervention and ICU days, and outcome, as reflected by mortality, were compared between the at-risk group and the group with no identifiable risk.

RESULTS: From 1987 to 2000, 87,424 records were complete enough for analysis. Of those, 48,687 (55.6%) patients sustained at least one injury requiring a surgical evaluation and 28,645 (32.7%) children were determined to be at risk. Mortality for at-risk children was 5.8% versus 0.02% for those with no identifiable risk. Of the children at risk, 24,706 (86.2%) had at least one injury requiring a surgical evaluation. Of the 58,779 children with no risk, 23,981 (40.8%) also had at least one injury requiring a surgical evaluation. Operative intervention for surgical injuries was required in 20.5% of cases (n = 10,015). Of these, 5,562 (56%) were at-risk children, and they had a mortality rate of 11.5%. Of the children not at risk, 4,453 required operative care, and they had a mortality of 0.1%. At-risk children undergoing surgery required an average of 5.02 days of ICU care compared to 1.2 for cases performed on children without risk.

CONCLUSIONS: These data clearly demonstrate the primacy of surgical pathology as the major determinant of outcome in pediatric injury. Operative intervention and the option of timely operative care remain major components of clinical management of children with injuries that pose a significant risk of morbidity or mortality.