Early Total Care Versus Damage Control Orthopedics in Polytrauma Pediatrics Patients: A Case Series

The management of polytrauma patients had undergone tremendous evolution. We would like to share the immediate outcome of two cases of polytrauma pediatric patients managed with early total care (ETC) and damage control orthopedic (DCO) principles. We reported two polytrauma pediatric patients who were categorized as borderline case. The first patient was managed using ETC principle while the second patient was treated using DCO approach. The length of post-operative intensive care unit admission, duration of ventilation, numbers and duration of antibiotics, post-surgery sepsis, infection rate and bony union time were analyzed.From our case series, DCO principle could lead to lesser post-operative complications, shorter hospital admission duration and antibiotic duration. The incidence of infection was less and the fractures had faster union. It is concluded that polytrauma pediatric patients categorized under borderline group managed using DCO approach has more favorable short-term outcome and should be managed by multidisciplinary teams to achieve excellent result.