Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To study the epidemiological and clinical aspects of head trauma in children in the emergency reception department of the Gabriel Touré University Hospital. METHODOLOGY: This is a prospective and descriptive study carried out in the emergency reception service (SAU) of the University Hospital Center (CHU) Gabriel TOURE. Our study population Child aged 0 to 15 years victim of trauma having benefited from at least a 24-hour observation at the SAU Gabriel TOURE. The entry was made using Word2013 software; the data were analyzed using SPSS version 26 software. The statistical tests used were Chi square and Fischer's exact test. The test was significant for a value of p < 0.05. RESULTS: During this study period, 12,092 admissions were made, including 276 head injuries in children, or 2.28%. Our study showed a strong male predominance with (73.6%) and a sex ratio of 2.78. The victims ranged in age from 0 months to 15 years. Road accidents (AVP) were mostly incriminated in the etiology of head trauma generally affecting students in 73.2% of cases. Seventeen percent of our patients had a Glasgow score (GCS) < 8 on admission; As functional signs, we noted headaches, vomiting, dizziness, loss of consciousness, drowsiness and even coma. The physical signs were deformation of the skull, craniofacial wounds and edema around the opening. The traumatic lesions were most often temporal and were located on the right. Two hundred and sixty-two out of 276 head trauma victims were able to perform a brain CT scan in 95% of cases. Forty-six percent of our patients had a treatment delay of between 3 and 12 hours. As medical treatment, analgesics were used in all our patients. The lifting of the jamb was the most common surgical procedure with 72.2%. Hyperthermia was the most common secondary cerebral insult of systemic origin (ACSOS) with 10.5%. Patients were transferred in 74.3% of cases, or 205, and the neurosurgery department was the service requested in 52.9%. The mortality rate in our series was 9.4% or 37 deaths.