Pediatric Trauma Mortality in India and the United States

The majority of deaths from trauma happen within 24 hours of injury, making it the top cause of death in children. Children are more likely than adult trauma patients to pass away in the emergency room (ED) as opposed to living long enough to be admitted to the hospital or transferred to the operating room. The most common cause of mortality in children who have been hurt is traumatic brain injury, but it is unclear how many of these children experience hemorrhage and when this occurs. TBI was the most frequent cause of death in one research, which examined the autopsy reports of 105 injured kids. Hemorrhage was the second most common cause of death.

India has a higher rate of pediatric trauma related mortality than the US, with lower injured children having the greatest relative mortality odds. In India, the adjusted fatality rate is more than 22 times higher than in the United States. In India, patients with less severe injuries and normal physiological parameters such as respiratory rate, systolic blood pressure, and glasgow coma scale have higher comparative changes of dying. The majority of pediatric injuries occur in low and middle income countries, which also account for over 95% of all trauma deaths worldwide. 11.1% of all trauma deaths worldwide, occur in India alone, occur in these countries. While high income nations have shown a decrease in injury mortality of up to 50%.

The graph above demonstrates the unadjusted pediatric trauma fatality in India vs. United States. As you can see in the graph, India has a much higher fatality rate compared to the United States.

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