Introduction: 75% of all children admitted to hospital with traumatic injuries involve traumatic brain injuries (TBI), 70% of the deaths occur within the first 48 hours and mortality fluctuates between 20 and 35%. It is estimated that every year 600,000 consultations are made for this reason, 300 out of every 100,000 children suffer a TBI and about 250,000 cases involve hospitalisation.
Patients and methods: A descriptive observational study was carried out of all the patients of paediatric age who attended our Casualty Department in the period between January and December 2001, and had suffered a TBI in any of its clinical variations. The Glasgow coma scale (GCS) was used to classify cases according to their seriousness and results were defined by employing the Glasgow results scale (GRS).
Results: A survey of 339 cases with TBI was performed, of which 329 (97%) were mild, eight (2.4%) moderate and two (0.6%) were serious. Of the first, 122 (36%) required hospitalisation and the remaining 217 (64%) were given ambulatory treatment (all of them had mild TBI). Complementary examinations carried out were simple head X rays in 117 (95.9%). CAT (computerised axial tomography) scans were only performed in three cases (2.5%). Only two (1.8%) deaths occurred in our series and there were no cases of disability, according to the GRS.
Conclusions: Mild TBI was the common event in our series. Application of treatment systems that are suited to the conditions in each medical centre helps to reduce the number of hospital admissions for mild TBI.