This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (2)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Pediatrics, Other  • Violence and Human Rights  • Bioterrorism  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Lt Col Christopher P. Coppola, USAF, MC; Maj Brian E. Leininger, USAF, MC; Lt Col Todd E. Rasmussen, USAF, MC; Col David L. Smith, USAF, MC

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2006;160:972-976.

Objective  To describe the treatment of children at an expeditionary military hospital in wartime Iraq.

Design  Descriptive, retrospective study.

Setting  The 332nd Air Force Theater Hospital in Balad, Iraq, January 1, 2004, to May 31, 2005.

Patients  All 85 children (of 1626 total patients) evaluated and treated at the hospital during the study period.

Interventions  Indicated surgical procedures performed on children.

Main Outcome Measures  Age, sex, diagnosis, injury, operations, and complications for children during the study period.

Results  The 85 children (age range, 1 day to 17 years; mean, 8 years) represented 5.2% of all patients. Thirty-four (61%) of the 56 children for whom sex was recorded were male. Injury was the diagnosis for 48 children (56%). Of these, the cause was fragmentation wound in 25 children (52%), penetrating trauma in 11 (23%), burn in 9 (19%), and blunt trauma in 3 (6%). The site of injury was the lower extremity in 18 children (38%), head in 11 (23%), upper extremity in 8 (17%), abdomen in 8 (17%), and chest in 3 (6%). Nontraumatic conditions had congenital, infectious, gastrointestinal, and neoplastic causes. During the study, 134 operations were performed on 63 children. There were 5 deaths.

Conclusions  Expeditionary military hospitals will encounter both injured and noninjured children seeking medical care. To optimize the care of these children, it will be necessary to provide the proper personnel, training, and equipment.

Author Affiliations: Department of Surgery, Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Tex.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Increased Mortality Rates of Young Children With Traumatic Injuries at a US Army Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, 2004
Matos et al.
Pediatrics 2008;122:e959-e966.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Pediatric Care as Part of the US Army Medical Mission in the Global War on Terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq, December 2001 to December 2004
Burnett et al.
Pediatrics 2008;121:261-265.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT