Most frequent interventions involving children in prehospital emergency medicine

Abstract

A retrospective study of interventions involving children in the period from 2011 to 2015 was conducted at the Teaching Institute for Emergency Medicine of Zagreb. During this period a total of 18,356 interventions involving children occurred in the field. From 2011 to 2013, 11,576 interventions occurred, which makes up 4.56 % of all interventions in that period. During 2014 and 2015 there were 6,780 interventions which make up 3.69 % of all interventions in the field during that period. There was a 20 % reduction in the number of emergency interventions involving children in the last two years of the study in comparison to the previous period. The greatest number of these emergency interventions is due to injury. From 2011 to 2013, the total number of interventions involving injured children was 24.59 % as opposed to 19.94 % from 2014 to 2015. There is a statistically significant decrease in the number of occurring injuries by 19%, whereas the number of head injuries went down from 12.48 % to 10.01 %. That marks a decrease of 20 % in the second part of the studied period. This is most probably a result of better injury prevention as a result of education programs in preschools, schools, media campaigns, and the use of protective equipment (protective helmets for cyclist, skaters, skiers etc.)