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Paediatric lap‐belt injury: A 7 year experience
Author(s) -
Shepherd Michael,
Hamill James,
Segedin Elizabeth
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
emergency medicine australasia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.602
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1742-6723
pISSN - 1742-6731
DOI - 10.1111/j.1742-6723.2006.00809.x
Subject(s) - medicine , laparotomy , injury prevention , incidence (geometry) , poison control , retrospective cohort study , paraplegia , population , surgery , emergency medicine , spinal cord , physics , environmental health , psychiatry , optics
Objective: To highlight the injuries that result from lap‐belt use and make recommendations for prevention, the recent experience of a regional paediatric trauma centre was reviewed. Methods: Retrospective review of admissions to Starship Children's Hospital from 1996 to 2003, with significant injury following involvement in a motor vehicle crash, while wearing a lap‐belt. Patients were identified from two prospectively collected databases and discharge coding data. Results: In total, 19 patients were identified over the 7 year period. The morbidity sustained includes 15 patients with hollow viscus injury, 13 laparotomies, 7 spinal fractures, 2 paraplegia and 1 fatality. A total of 11 patients required laparotomy with a median delay of 24 h. Of patients in the present series, 58% were aged less than 8 years and thus were inappropriately restrained. Conclusions: Lap‐belt use can result in a range of life‐threatening injuries or permanent disability in the paediatric population. The incidence of serious lap‐belt injury does not appear to be decreasing. Morbidity and mortality could be reduced by the use of three‐point restraints, age appropriate restraints and booster seats.