Closed Head Injury in Childhood: Experience at a Tertiary Centre in North Central Nigeria

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Closed head injury (CHI), occurs commonly in childhood, which when trivial may not be associated with brain injury or long-term sequelae. A small number of children who appear to be at low risk in minor head trauma may have a clinically important traumatic brain injury (ciTBI) with associated mortality and morbidity OBJECTIVE: To determine the pattern of management procedures and outcomes of CHI in children in a resource limited centre in north central Nigeria. METHODS: This was a five-year retrospective review of 104 children admitted with closed head injured at the Bingham University Teaching Hospital (BhUTH) Jos, North Central Nigeria from 2013 to 2018. Using the patient records, data extracted for analysis included patient demographics, indication for admission and management outcome. RESULTS: One hundred and six children were admitted during the period, of these 104 had sufficient data for analysis. Of the 104 children 83(79.8%) were boys. The commonest cause of closed head injury was road traffic accident accounting for 78.8% of the cases. Eighty-six (82.7%) got well and were discharged home. Seven children died, giving a case fatality rate of6.7%. CONCLUSION: With dedication and commitment to qualitative health care even in a low-resource setting in a developing country, satisfactory outcomes in management of CHI in the child are achievable. BJM 2020; 2(1): 22-26.