Evaluating The Epidemiology And Outcome Of Motorized Gate Related Head Injuries In Paediatric Patients At Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital, South Africa

Abstract

Introduction: In South Africa motorized gates are widely used to control access to homes, residential complexes/estates, schools and a host of other facilities that harbor children. A typical history of a motorized gate related pediatric head injury involves a child who, while playing on a stationary / moving motorized gate, derails the gate which falls off its metal anchors onto the child who subsequently incurs a traumatic brain injury.

Materials and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study performed by consecutively enrolling 173 pediatric patients admitted with a traumatic brain injury to our neurosurgical unit, 10/173 (5.8%) of which incurred motorized gate related head injuries, from the 01 January 2013 - 31 December 2018. The data collected and analyzed in this study included subject age and gender, whether the head injury was isolated, associated systemic injuries, severity of the head injury, radiological finding, and Glasgow Outcome Score. The study was approved by the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University Ethics committee with ethics approval number: SMUREC/M/12/2020: PG

Results:  Pediatric motorized gate related head injuries accounted for a significant proportion (5.78%) of all pediatric head injuries admitted to the neurosurgical unit. Our study confirmed the significance that in pediatric patients who incur a motorized gate related traumatic brain injury, the severity of the injury will be mild (p=0.03). We further report several clinical trends that did not reach significance namely 6/10 (60%) subjects were 1 year to < 5 years-old (p=0.41), 8/10 (80%) subjects were male (p=0.49), 9/10 (90%) subjects had an isolated traumatic brain injury (p=0.07), and 10/10 (100%) subjects were GOS 5 at discharge (p=0.94).

Conclusion: Our study highlights motorized gate related head injuries in pediatric patients. We recommend that local authorities in South Africa formulate new safety standards in the installation of motorized gates to prevent these injuries from occurring.