[Quality of prehospital and early clinical care of pediatric trauma patients of school age compared to an adult cohort. A matched-pair analysis of 624 patients from the DGU trauma registry].

Conflicting reports exist regarding the quality of prehospital treatment of pediatric trauma patients. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether prehospital treatment and emergency management in pediatric trauma patients were similar to that in adult patients. All patients who had been prospectively documented in the registry of the German Trauma Society (DGU) between 2002 and 2005 were selected for this study. A total of 312 matched pairs of adult and pediatric patients suffering from identical injuries were defined and compared with respect to cause of trauma, diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, and outcome. Within the study group, 63% were male, and the average age was 10.5+/-2.7 (SD) years in the pediatric group and 33.9+/-9.3 years in the adult group. There was no significant difference regarding prehospital intubation, reanimation, fluid management, chest drainage, ground and air transport to the hospital, time to arrival or interval in the emergency room. In contrast, significant differences (p<0.05) were observed in terms of the cause of trauma and pre-existing diseases. Pediatric trauma patients were not triaged or treated differently from adult trauma patients in respect to key issues of prehospital and early clinical trauma management.