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Background and Objectives: The Covid-19 pandemic has forced mass closures of childcare facilities and schools. While these measures are necessary to slow virus transmission, little is known regarding the secondary health consequences of social distancing. The purpose of this study is to assess the proportion of injuries secondary to physical child abuse (PCA) at a level I pediatric trauma center during the Covid-19 pandemic., Methods: A retrospective review of patients at our center was conducted to identify injuries caused by PCA in the month following the statewide closure of childcare facilities in Maryland. The proportion of PCA patients treated during the Covid-19 era were compared to the corresponding period in the preceding two years by Fisher's exact test. Demographics, injury profiles, and outcomes were described for each period., Results: Eight patients with PCA injuries were treated during the Covid-19 period (13 % of total trauma patients), compared to four in 2019 (4 %, p < 0.05) and three in 2018 (3 %, p < 0.05). The median age of patients in the Covid-19 period was 11.5 months (IQR 6.8-24.5). Most patients were black (75 %) with public health insurance (75 %). All injuries were caused by blunt trauma, resulting in scalp/face contusions (63 %), skull fractures (50 %), intracranial hemorrhage (38 %), and long bone fractures (25 %)., Conclusions: There was an increase in the proportion of traumatic injuries caused by physical child abuse at our center during the Covid-19 pandemic. Strategies to mitigate this secondary effect of social distancing should be thoughtfully implemented., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Injured children who arrive by self-transport to the emergency department (ED) may receive delayed or inadequate care. We studied differences in demographics, clinical characteristics, and trauma activation status for admitted pediatric trauma patients based on arrival by self-transport or Emergency Medical Services (EMS)., Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study at two level I pediatric trauma centers., Inclusion Criteria: <15 y old with blunt or penetrating injury. We used univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses to determine associations between trauma activation, ED length of stay (LOS), and hospital LOS with demographic and clinical characteristics., Results: We identified 1161 patients: 40.1% arrived by self-transport and 59.9% by EMS. Self-transport patients were less likely to have an abnormal Glasgow Coma Scale score < 15 (2.1% versus 22.0%, P < 0.001) and Injury Severity Score > 15 (2.4% versus 11.7%, P < 0.001). Trauma activation was initiated in 52.5% of patients, occurring less often in self-transport than EMS patients (2.4% versus 86.2%, P < 0.001). Trauma activation rate was negatively associated with arrival by self-transport (odds ratio [OR] 0.001, 95% CI 0.00-0.003), positively associated with Glasgow Coma Scale <15 (OR 25.9, 95% CI 6.6-101.2) and site (OR 15.4, 95% CI 6.3-37.5) but not with Injury Severity Score >15 (OR 2.8, 95% CI 0.8-9.2). Self-transport arrival was associated with longer ED LOS (estimated regression slope 0.47, 95% CI 0.13-0.82)., Conclusions: Almost half of admitted pediatric trauma patients arrived by self-transport; however, trauma team activation rarely occurs for these patients. Trauma team activation may be underutilized in self-transport patients with injuries resulting in hospital admission., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This study sought to determine the proportion of children with long bone fractures who undergo duplicate radiographic imaging after transfer to a pediatric trauma center (PTC) for further management. The secondary objective was to explore provider rationale and diagnostic yield of repeat X-rays. This was a single-site, retrospective cohort study conducted at a PTC. All patients, aged 0-21 years, who were transferred to the PTC for management of a long bone fracture were included. Electronic medical records were reviewed to determine the proportion of children who had repeat radiographic imaging and the provider rationale for obtaining this. T-test and Χ 2 analyses were used to compare patients who had repeat X-rays with those who did not. During the study period, 309 patients (63% male, mean age 7.2±4.3 years) were transferred from 30 referring hospitals. Of these, 43% (n=133) underwent repeat radiographs. Patient age (p=0.9), gender (p=0.7), fracture location (p=0.19), and type of referring emergency department (pediatric vs general, p=0.3) were not significantly associated with repeat imaging. Rationale for repeat imaging could be ascertained in 31% of cases (n=41); the most common reasons were request by orthopedist (17%, n=23) and suboptimal original imaging (10%, n=13). Repeat imaging at the PTC did not reveal new or additional diagnoses in any case. Nearly half of the children in our study population undergo repeat and likely unnecessary imaging. Strategies to reduce repeat radiographs should be developed, as redundant imaging exposes patients to additional radiation and increases medical expense., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© American Federation for Medical Research 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)