• Stella Alice Nimanya, John Sekabira, Nasser Kakembo, Phyllis Kisa, Alicia Massenga, Rovine Naluyimbazi, Felix Oyania, and Innocent Okello.
• Mulago National Referral Hospital. P.O.Box 7051, Kampala, Uganda.
• Afr Health Sci. 2022 Aug 1; 22 (Spec Issue): 108-113.

BackgroundTrauma is a major contributor to pediatric morbidity and mortality. Injury and violence are a major killer of children throughout the world. Unintentional injuries account for almost 90% of these cases. They are the leading cause of death for children aged 10-19 years. More than 95% of all injury deaths in children occur in low income and middle-income countries. Abdominal trauma is present in approximately 25% of pediatric patients with major trauma and is the most common cause of unrecognized fatal injury in children.ObjectivesTo describe the patterns, the management and outcomes of pediatric abdominal trauma.This was a descriptive retrospective study. Data was extracted from the Pediatric surgery Unit database from January 2012 to July 2019 on all abdominal trauma admissions to the unit.ResultsFalls were the commonest (51.3%) mechanism for trauma on the unit. Most (84%) of the admissions had blunt abdominal trauma, with the majority (77%) managed non operatively. Only 16% had penetrating trauma, with the majority (84%) of these managed operatively. The average length of hospital stay for most (71.9%) of the patients was less than 7 days, with 96.1% of all admitted patients being discharged upon recovery.ConclusionBlunt abdominal trauma is the most common pattern of pediatric abdominal trauma, with majority of these patients being managed non-operatively with good outcomes. Selective non-operative management for penetrating pediatric abdominal trauma has good patient outcomes as well.© 2022 Nimanya SA et al.

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