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Peruvian Journal of Neurosurgery
Mild cranioencephalic trauma in the child population. Experience at the Baca Ortiz Hospital, Quito-Ecuador, 2016-2019
ANDREA PAEZ T., ALICIA TORRES M., ADRIANA GONZÁLEZ G., RODOLFO BERNAL C., JESÚS CASTRO V.
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ABSTRACT
Introduction: The alteration at the anatomical and/or functional level, both motors, sensory and cognitive, a product of the sudden exchange of mechanical energy caused by an external force on the skull, is what defines a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The permanence or transience of these alterations determines the severity of the TBI, with 70 to 80% of a mild type whose neurological symptoms are of little intensity and duration. Clinical observation in mild TBI includes observing children under 2 years of age with trauma without fracture or admission criteria clinically for 2 to 4 hours and observing children with symptoms or mechanism of fall for 4 to 6 hours not known. The objective of the study is to describe mild TBI at Baca Ortiz Pediatric Hospital, a national children's referral hospital in Ecuador, during the period from January 2016 to December 2019.
Methods: Cross-sectional, descriptive, and retrospective study that includes patients diagnosed with mild head trauma evaluated and treated in the Neurosurgery Service of the Baca Ortiz Pediatric Hospital, from January 2016 to December 2019.
Results: During the period 2016 to 2019, 105 children with mild TBI were diagnosed and treated, this being more frequent in males (62.85%) and during the preschool stage (51.42%). Of all of them, 82.85% received specialty medical care in the first 6 hours after the trauma. The main etiology was the fall produced at home (66.66%).
Conclusions: Mild traumatic brain injury is one of the main reasons for pediatric hospital consultation in our setting. It mostly occurs in male patients of preschool age, because of falls at home.
Keywords: Craniocerebral Trauma, Child, Hospitals, Pediatric, Referral and Consultation (Source: MeSH NLM)