Abstract
Background
Studies in the adult population are conflicting regarding whether obesity is protective
in penetrating trauma. In the pediatric population, data on obesity and penetrating
trauma are limited. We sought to determine if there is a different rate of operation
or of survival in pediatric and adolescent patients with obesity.
Methods
We queried the National Trauma Data Bank research data set from 2013 to 2016 for all
patients aged 2-18 who sustained traumatic penetrating injuries to the thorax and
abdomen. The cohort was divided into body mass index percentiles for gender and age
using Center for Disease Control definitions. Outcomes included overall survival,
whether or not an operative procedure was performed, and hospital and intensive care
unit (ICU) length of stay.
Results
We analyzed 9611 patients with penetrating trauma, of which 4285 had an operative
intervention. When adjusted for other variables (age, gender, race, ICU length of
stay, hospital length of stay, and Injury Severity Score), children of every body
mass index percentile had similar survival. Healthy weight patients were more likely
to get an operation than patients in the obese category. Length of hospital stay was
similar between groups, but the ICU length of stay was longer in the overweight and
obese groups compared with healthy weight and underweight groups.
Conclusions
Children and adolescents with obesity are less likely to undergo operation after penetrating
thoracoabdominal trauma. Further study is needed to determine the reason for this
difference.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 24, 2021
Accepted:
January 25,
2021
Received in revised form:
January 20,
2021
Received:
March 31,
2020
Identification
Copyright
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