Injuries are an important public health problem as well as the leading cause of death and disability among children. Our aim was to longitudinally explore the incidence of in-hospital treated traumas, their operative treatment and related mortality among pediatric patients in Finland.
The National Hospital Discharge Register and the Official Cause-of-Death Statistics data of in-hospital treated pediatric trauma patients between 1997 and 2006 in Finland were evaluated for hospitalizations, treatment modality and mortality.
Fractures (69%) and head injuries (28%) were the most common in-hospital treated traumas (477/100,000 persons/year). These were followed by injuries of intra-abdominal (1.4%), thoracic (1.2%) and urological organs (0.6%). Head traumas constituted 67% of injury-related deaths. During the ten-year follow-up period, the annual incidence (per 100,000 persons) of head injuries decreased by 13.6% (152 in 1997 vs. 131 in 2006, p