Introduction: Despite the worldwide increase in the incidence of gunshot injuries, there are few large published series on craniocerebral gunshot injuries in children.
Materials and methods: The records of 30 consecutive children who were treated for craniocerebral gunshot injuries at the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital from 1989 to 2002 were reviewed retrospectively. The circumstances of the injury, clinical status, CT findings, complications, and outcome were assessed.
Results: The median age was 7 years. Seventy-seven percent of the victims were boys. The majority of the children were injured in the crossfire of civilian violence. The initial management consisted of debridement under local anesthesia in 16 children and neurosurgical procedures under general anesthesia were performed in 14. Sixteen children sustained transhemispheric injuries, 5 bihemispheric injuries, 5 tangential injuries, and 4 transventricular injuries. All 3 children with a GCS <4 died within 72 h of admission. Three of the 7 children with GCS 4-7 died but there were no deaths in those children whose GCS was >7 post-resuscitation. Motor deficits, cranial nerve palsies, and visual field defects were very common. Early post-traumatic seizures were the commonest complication (18%).
Conclusion: Children with higher post-resuscitation GCSs fared better than adults in terms of mortality but not necessarily morbidity. As in the case with adults, the GCS after resuscitation is a very good prognostic indicator of mortality.