Paediatric trauma

Injury is the commonest cause of death amongst children over the age of 1 year in the developed world. Injury patterns vary across the world. In the UK, paediatric trauma is relatively rare and mainly from blunt injuries. Importantly, the majority of severely injured children are under 10, and more than 25% are less than 1 year of age.Children are anatomically and physically different from adults and their trauma patterns, response and management are also different from those of adults. The evidence shows that children have a better outcome from management under specialist paediatric care.This article covers the principles of trauma management including differences between adult and paediatric management such as volume resuscitation, paediatric trauma imaging and the non-operative approach to solid organ injuries.