Clinico-Etiological Profile of Children Admitted with Head Injury in a Tertiary Health Care Centre During the COVID Pandemic

Abstract Background  The mechanism of injury, type of pathology, mode of management and specific problems, in the pediatric age group make these a unique population. The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown caused a significant reduction in the number of road traffic accidents during the same period and the resultant number of head injuries in children. Methods  This was a descriptive study of 76 consecutive pediatric patients admitted with head injury between June and December 2020. Children under 18 years with head injury admitted in our hospital were included. Results  The most common etiology of pediatric head injury was found to be fall from height (61.8%) followed by road traffic accidents (27.6%). The most common age group affected was 1 to 5 years with a mean of 6.3 ± 5 years. Road traffic accidents were commonly seen in the 15 to 18 age group. The Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS) of 1 (death) was seen in one patient (1.3%) and low disability in 98.7% of patients. Conclusion  Falls formed the most important cause of pediatric head injury during this pandemic, and carefulness on the part of parents can help avoid dangerous consequences for the children. Recovery with minimal disability was observed in approximately all cases in this study. The number of severe traumatic brain injury was very low in this study. This can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic causing significant reduction in road traffic accidents and the number of severe head injury