Pediatric transport related injuries in Tehran: the necessity of implementation of injury prevention protocols.

Prehospital and hospital data was prospectively gathered on all hospitalized trauma patients admitted to six major trauma hospitals in Tehran from August 1999 to September 2000. Data from patients of under 19 years of age was analyzed for this article. From 8000 hospitalized trauma patients, 2354 cases (29%) belonged to this age group. Fall and transport related injuries (TRIs) with 1074 (46%) and 921 (39%) cases respectively, were the most common mechanism of injury. In TRIs, boys were affected 3.5 times as often as girls. Younger children were more prone to pedestrian-related injuries while teenagers were more prone to motorcycle related injuries. Head trauma was the most common cause of death and 28 out of 32 trauma deaths were attributed to this kind of injury. Lower extremity (513) and head injuries (322) were the most common injuries. Only a few of motorcyclists and car passengers used safety devices (helmet and seat belt respectively) at the time of accident.