Pattern of pediatric trauma during covid-19 pandemic lockdown in Multan.

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the pattern of pediatric trauma during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Multan. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Departments of Pediatric Emergency Two Major Hospitals of Multan. Period: 15^th March 2020 till 30^th April 2020. Material & Methods: A total of 231 patients were included in the study. Data on age, sex, mechanism and pattern of injury, severity of injury, body area involved and rural/urban housing was collected on a predesigned performa. Descriptive statistics were run using SPSS version 20. Results: Out of 231 patients, 168 (72.7%) were male with the mean age of 6.01 years± 3.02. Most of the injuries noted were fall (64.9%) followed by burn (12.98%), hit by some heavy object (11.72%) and stab (7.8%). Road side accidents were the least (2.6%) common. There was no report of sexual abuse in children during this pandemic lockdown in Multan. Life threatening injuries were reported in 8.66% and 90% of the injuries were non-life or limb threatening. Regarding body area involved, head injuries remained the most common (37.23%) followed by limb injuries (35.50%) and the abdomen was the least common body area involved. Conclusion: It is concluded that during pandemic lock down most of the pediatric trauma is not severe and is still avoidable by increase public awareness programs regarding home safety and resource allocation.