Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of mortality in children. There are few studies focused on school-aged children with TBI. We conducted this study to identify the early predictors of in-hospital mortality in school-aged children with severe TBI. In this 10 year observational cohort study, a total of 550 children aged 7-18 years with TBI were enrolled. Compared with mild/moderate TBI, children with severe TBI were older; more commonly had injury mechanisms of traffic accidents; and more neuroimage findings of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), subdural hemorrhage (SDH), parenchymal hemorrhage, cerebral edema, and less epidural hemorrhage (EDH). The in-hospital mortality rate of children with severe TBI in our study was 23%. Multivariate analysis showed that falls, being struck by objects, motor component of Glasgow coma scale (mGCS), early coagulopathy, and SAH were independent predictors of in-hospital mortality. We concluded that school-aged children with severe TBI had a high mortality rate. Clinical characteristics including injury mechanisms of falls and being struck, a lower initial mGCS, early coagulopathy, and SAH are predictive of in-hospital mortality.
Keywords: mortality; predictors; school-aged children; traumatic brain injury.