Children with traumatic head injury: morbidity and postacute treatment.

The purpose of this paper was to describe pediatric head trauma and the factors that affect the extent, characteristics, and postacute service needs of functional limitations resulting from head trauma. Data are presented on 4,870 children who survived head injuries and who were enrolled in the National Pediatric Trauma Registry during 1985 to 1988. The sample excluded 349 children who died and 151 children who had impairments before injury. More than 50% of the surviving children sustained extracranial injury in addition to head injury, and this occurrence was related to age and mechanism of injury. Although 78% of the children were discharged from acute care without obvious impairments, 787 had one to three impairments, and 286 had four or more impairments. Discharge to rehabilitation or extended care facilities depended on the number and type of resulting impairments.