AETIOLOGY AND CLINICAL PRESENTATION OF HEAD INJURY IN CHILDREN AT MAYO HOSPITAL, LAHORE

Abstract

Head injury is one of the common cause of emergency admission in the department of Paediatric surgery, Mayo Hospital Lahore. A prospective study including 6326 patients, who sustained trauma to head of variable severity is presented. The authors have analysed the mode of injury correlating it with the age and sex of the patients. It was found that over 68% of patient sustained injury to head due to fall from roof top, mostly without protective boundary wall. The road traffic accident is the second commonest cause of trauma. Incidence of 26% is in contrast to report from other centres in developed countries. Other causes included firearm injury by stray bullets, striking the head against on object or falling off various households. Importance of protective boundary wall on the roof top, implementation of traffic rules with education of population, legislation for banning the firearm on the various social events is stressed.