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Overlooked injuries in children often cause permanent disabilities, says paediatric expert
“Internationally over 25% paediatric injuries are missed, but in our country the ratio is 35%,” said Prof Ajai Singh, director of AIIMS, Bhopal.
Up to 35% of serious injuries among children remain overlooked, leading to greater trouble and even permanent disability later on, said Prof Ajai Singh, director of AIIMS, Bhopal, during the four-day annual conference of the Indian Association of Orthopaedics (IOACON), which began on Thursday here.
“Internationally over 25% paediatric injuries are missed, but in our country the ratio is 35%. This is because we lack focus upon injuries among children and often lack of training to identify such injuries makes the job even tough,” said Prof Singh.
“Paediatric trauma cases need a different kind of speciality/ability to diagnose the injury. Children are unable to tell specifically and keep crying out of shock and pain due to injury. They fail to differentiate between pain and shock, and here is the role of expert,” added Prof Singh.
Dr Singh further said, “An adult can explain how the injury took place and where it hit the most, enough to diagnose the injury with diagnostic tools. A child might just keep on crying till the time they get relief.”
Prof Singh who has established India’s first paediatric trauma wing at the AIIMS, Bhopal added “Injury in a child is different than an adult. The point of swelling might not be the same as injury is. Hence learning to make diagnosis for paediatric trauma helps in better and speedy treatment.”
“This was 68th annual conference of the association. We conducted hands on pre-conference training sessions. Experts including Dr Ashish Kumar HoD orthopaedics KGMU, Dr Sandeep Kapoor director Healthcity Hospital and Trauma Centre coordinated the sessions,” said Dr Anoop Agrawal, scientific secretary of the conference.
According to Dr Singh, the solution to the issue is not separate centres for treating paediatric trauma but separate wards and separate and trained staff. “There is no need for a separate trauma building for children. The available diagnostic such as x-ray, CT scan and pathology can be used. The only difference is upon reaching triage area adult and paediatric patients are to be handled by separate staff.”
