Pediatric injury patterns.

Ten thousand pediatric deaths annually in the United States speak for themselves. There are distinctive patterns and peculiarities of pediatric injuries that are emerging mostly as a result of small epidemiological studies. Trauma research has been and continues to be grossly underfunded relative to its impact on society. Allocation of appropriate funding and the requisite tools must be made available so that targeted and effective prevention campaigns can be designed and vigorously implemented [50, 69-75]. We have started, but the bulk of the work remains to be done. In many instances we should look to other parts of the world for successful examples (United Kingdom, Germany, Australia) [37, 63, 76]. Greater emphasis must be placed on basic science research applicable to trauma and on clinical research designed to improve the care not only of injured children but of all trauma patients. While the need for a comprehensive response to the worldwide trauma epidemic remains at a whisper, we have started shouting.