Grievous injuries in children due to tractor-related accidents

Introduction: Tractor-related accidents are common among the agricultural injuries. Children are prone to such incidents as farmers live in the vicinity of the farmland. Materials and Methods: From the Paediatric Intensive Care unit (PICU) database we extracted the details of children with unintentional injuries and poisonings during the period January 2008 to June 2009. Those with tractor-related injuries were further analyzed using outpatient and inpatient charts, computerized hospital records were accessed to obtain laboratory and radiological investigations details. The clinical characteristics, injuries, and outcome of these children are presented. Results: In the 18 months period, there were 107 children with trauma, envenomations and poisoning constituting 6.5% of all PICU admissions. Of the 31 (29%) with polytrauma, four (12.9%) children, three of them boys had sustained tractor-related injuries. The injuries included three with multiple limb fractures, two each of head, chest, musculoskeletal and perineal injury and one each of abdominal and major vascular injury. All had reached the hospital in life-threatening shock and were resuscitated. Multidisciplinary surgical intervention including craniectomy, liver resection and femoral vessels anastomosis were required along with blood transfusions, ventilatory support and inotropes. Three of them survived the injuries after a mean PICU stay of 34 days. Conclusion: Tractor-related incidents among rural children are associated with major injuries and fatalities in children. The findings call for interventions to prevent such injuries and education of the farming community involved with tractors and other agricultural machineries.