Adolescent trauma: Patterns and outcomes

Introduction: Adolescence is the transitional stage of physical and psychological changes that occur from puberty to adulthood, and disruption in growth at this stage can have long-lasting effects. Our main aim was to profile these injuries treated in the emergency department (ED) and describe the etiology, patterns, and outcomes in such patients. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective descriptive analysis of these victims who presented to us from January 2017 to December 2018. Among key factors studied were patient demographics, mechanism of trauma, injury severity, hospital admission status. In addition to descriptive statistics, we utilized univariate and multivariate analyses to help elucidate factors associated with severe injuries. Results: The data for a total of 693 patients were analyzed. Among these, 84.5% were male. The mean age was 17.2 ± 1.33 years. Based on their hemodynamic stability, the majority were triaged as priority 2 (49.6%). The most common causes of trauma were road traffic accidents (RTAs) (63.3%), followed by sports related injury (13.7%). Two-wheeler-related incidents accounted for 82.5% of RTA-related injuries. Extremities, face, and head were injured in 51.3%, 25.8%, and 13.5%, respectively. New injury severity score of more than 14 was noted in 82 (13.2%) cases. Approximately half of the study population, 374 (54%), were discharged stable from the ED, whereas 254 (37%) were admitted with 194 (28%) requiring major surgical intervention. Conclusions: Most of the traumas related to adolescents are RTAs, followed by sports-related injuries. Male gender and pedestrian-related injuries are independent predictors for high severity of injuries. The following core competencies are addressed in this article: Patient care, Systems-based practice, Medical knowledge, Practice-based learning and improvement.