Characteristics and outcomes of pediatric blunt renal trauma: a nationwide cohort study in Japan

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe epidemiologic features of pediatric blunt renal trauma.

Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis using the Japan Trauma Data Bank over 15 years. We included patients younger than 18 years with blunt renal trauma. We analyzed temporal trends and variations across age groups in patient characteristics, intervention, and in-hospital mortality. We also assessed factors associated with in-hospital mortality.

Results: We identified 435 pediatric patients with blunt renal trauma. Their median age was 14 years and median Injury Severity Score (ISS) was 17. The most common mechanism of injury was traffic accident in all age groups. Nephrectomy was performed in 3.2%, and the overall in-hospital mortality was 4.6%, both of which showed decreasing trends. The most common mechanism of injury by age group was a pedestrian accident in infants/toddlers/preschoolers (43.5%), pedestrian accident in middle childhood (18.5%), bicycle accident in young teens (24.7%), and motorcycle accident in teenagers (41.2%). Sports-related injury was common in young teens (23.3%) and teenagers (15.2%). Factors such as ISS, shock, concomitant injury, and nephrectomy were associated with high in-hospital mortality.

Conclusions: We described decreasing trends in nephrectomy and in-hospital mortality in pediatric blunt renal trauma and found traffic accident and sports-related injury were common in the pediatric population in Japan.

Keywords: Blunt injury; Japan Trauma Data Bank; Pediatric population; Renal trauma.