95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Critical Care
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1562237
Analysis of the Clinical Features of 980 Accidental Pedi atric Injuries in the PICU
Provisionally accepted- Hunan Children's Hospital, Changsha, China
Objective: The aim was to investigate the causes and clinical characteristics of 980 cases of accidental pediatric injuries admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), aiming to provide clinical evidence for preventing and reducing the occurrence of severe accidental pediatric injuries.Methods: A total of 980 patients with accidental pediatric injuries admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of Hunan Children's Hospital from 2017 to 2023 were included in this study.Results: Between 2017 and 2023, 980 patients with accidental pediatric injuries were admitted to the PICU, comprising 588 boys and 392 girls (boy-to-girl ratio: 1.5:1). During the study period, a total of 16,151 children were admitted to the PICU, of whom 980 were admitted due to accidental injuries and 15,171 were admitted due to nonaccidental injuries. There were no statistically significant differences in sex distribution between the accidental and nonaccidental injury groups.Accidental pediatric injuries were most common among infants, toddlers, and preschool children. The number of PICU admissions for accidental injuries tended to decrease with increasing age. Across all years, infants and preschool children were the most affected. Traffic accidents and falls showed an increasing trend over time, whereas poisoning and drowning showed a decreasing trend. Differences in the composition of causes by year were statistically significant. The overall mortality rate among children with accidental injuries was 4.39%. The mortality rates by cause were as follows: traffic accidents (4.2%), falls (3.2%), foreign objects (7.1%), carbon monoxide poisoning (0.0%), food poisoning (9.7%), drug poisoning (1.0%), other types of poisoning (4.2%), burns and corrosive injuries (0.0%), drowning (13.0%), suffocation syndrome (23.1%), and other causes (4.3%). Prognostic differences between causes were statistically significant.Conclusion: Accidental pediatric injuries predominantly occur in boys, with infants and preschool children being the most affected. Injuries are more common in summer, with drug poisoning, traffic accidents, and falls being the main causes. Among the common causes, traffic accidents and falls showed an increasing trend, whereas poisoning and drowning showed a decreasing trend. Children with suffocation syndrome, drowning, and food poisoning had high mortality rates.
Keywords: PICu, Children, accidental injuries PICU, accidental injuries, Changing trend
Received: 17 Jan 2025; Accepted: 01 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Chen, He, Zhang, Huang, Lu and Xiao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Zhenghui Xiao, Hunan Children's Hospital, Changsha, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.