• J Wheatley and D Cass.
• Paediatric Surgery Unit, Westmead Hospital, New South Wales, Australia.
• J Paediatr Child Health. 1990 Feb 1;26(1):25-30.

AbstractIn order to begin to evaluate the need for an integrated trauma management service for injured children, a retrospective review of deaths following admission to a suburban teaching hospital was conducted. The medical records and coroners' reports for 64 consecutive cases over 68 months were reviewed, looking for errors in care which may have contributed to fatal outcomes. There was a male predominance (64%). The main causes of death were pedestrian injuries (42%), drownings (20%), injuries to vehicular passengers (17%) and injuries to cyclists (13%). Errors, often multiple, occurred in 29 cases (45%). Errors most frequently involved airway control and ventilatory support (25%), volume replacement (19%) and delays in performing essential investigations (13%). Errors were most frequent at the referring hospitals (49% [17 of/35 referred cases], compared with 14% at the teaching hospital), and principally involved multiply injured victims of blunt trauma (81%, 13 of 16 patients). In only three cases (5%) would better management have salvaged the patient. This can be explained partly by the predominance of what were judged to be irretrievable intracranial injuries (90%) in patients suffering blunt injuries. In contrast, an analysis of the same patient group revealed that in 30-50% the fatality could have been prevented by the full application of well recognized safety strategies. While strategies such as triage and trauma teams should reduce the error rate, it is yet to be proven that optimal post-injury care will significantly reduce mortality.

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