Background: The traumatic brain injury is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the paediatric population. Adequate knowledge of their epidemiology is necessary to develop targeted preventive campaigns, and to estimate the needs for care facilities.
Aim: To specify the demographic and epidemiologic characteristics of paediatric traumatic brain injury.
Methods: Longitudinal retrospective study including children hospitalized for traumatic brain injury in the Hospital of Child of Tunis during the 1-year period (2007).
Results: Our study comprised 298 children with an average age of 5.9 ± 3.9 years and a sex-ratio with 2. Minor traumatic brain injury represented 92.6 % of the cases and severe traumatic brain injury represented 5.4 %. One child of 6 had another traumatism. Accidents at home were the most frequent causes (64.1 %). Traffic accidents represented 27.9 % of the mechanisms. In 90.6 % of the cases the transport was assured by clean means. The cerebral scanner, produced at 89.9 % of the patients, revealed cerebral lesions in 49.7% of the cases. Neurosurgical indications were carried in 5 children. The death rate was 2.1 %. At three months of the exit of the hospital, 97.2 % of the children had a good recovery.
Conclusion: The paediatric traumatic brain injury is a frequent and serious pathology. The epidemiologic studies can contribute to the development of prevention program in order to decrease its incidence in the target population.