Background: Soft tissue trauma of the face is considered a leading cause of presentation and referral to the pediatric emergency department. The present study aims to evaluate the demographics properties of facial injuries presenting to the pediatric emergency.
Methods: In this study, 1160 patients presented with a simple facial laceration to the pediatric emergency department of Başkent University were reviewed from 2011 to 2017. Patients up to 18 years of age were included. We evaluated demographics about patients' age, sex, the cause of injury, the location of laceration and timing of the injury. Age was categorized according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) pediatric terminology into five groups as follows: 0-12 months, 12 months-2 years, 2-5 year, 6-11 year, and 12-18 years. The following analyses were performed to each age group: a number of cases, male to female predominance, timing of injury (e.g., early morning, afternoon, evening, late evening and at night), the place that the injury has occurred (e.g., at home, at school, in sport hall), the cause of injury (fall, hitting a hard subject, sports-related), the location of laceration (forehead, periorbital area, cheek, perioral area, nose, submental area) and the incidence according to the season.
Results: Number and relative percentages of cases were as follows: 0-12 months (n=127, 10.9%), 12-24 months (n=113, 9.7%), 3-5 years (n=385, 33.1%), 6-11 years (n=403, 34.7%) and 12-17 years (n=132, 11.3%). The average age of children was 6.5 year (range, 5 month - 17.9 year). The age group 6-11 showed a higher incidence compared to other age groups (n=403, 34.7%). Fifty-three percent of the population was younger than six years and there was a male predominance in all age groups.
Conclusion: The demographic data provided in this study can be useful in trauma prevention programs which are effective in reducing the incidence, nature and severity of facial lacerations. Parents should be reminded of age-specific preventive measures in injury avoidance.