Fatal injuries to children - United States, 1986

Article Abstract:

The leading cause of death of children aged 19 or younger in the United States is accidents. A recent report mandated by the Injury Prevention Act of 1986 has reviewed the causes of childhood accidents in the United States, and reports on the five leading causes: motor vehicle crashes, homicide, suicide, drowning, and fire/burns. Of the 22,411 fatal injuries of children, approximately one half of the deaths were attributable to motor vehicles. In 70 percent of these deaths the child was an occupant. Occupant death for 15 to 19-year-olds was 10 times more frequent than for children under the age of 10. The fatality for all males was approximately twice that of females. Nearly 13 percent of all fatal injuries in this group occurred as a result of homicide. Two-thirds of the homicides occurred in the 15 to 19-year-old group, and 23 percent of the homicide victims were five years old or less. The homicide rate for black children was five times greater than for white children. Drowning was the most common in children under the age of five, and for males aged 15 to 19. The use of alcohol was associated with just less than half of the drownings. Fire and burns were the fifth leading cause of death in children; over half of these fatalities occurred in children under the age of four, and 73 percent of all such cases involved children under 10. Death from burns or fire was more common in black children than white. House fires accounted for 80 percent of all burn or fire deaths, electrical burns accounted for 9 percent, and scalding was responsible for 2 percent. Child abuse is a significant contributor to childhood injuries; an estimated 1.6 million children suffered from violence in 1986. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Causes of, Accidents

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Accidents claim 96,000 lives, but rate declining for some types

Article Abstract:

For Americans between the ages of one and 37 years accidents are the fourth leading cause of death, responsible for approximately 96,000 deaths per year. An average of 11 accidental deaths and 1,000 serious injuries occur every hour in the United States. A 1985 report of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine says that human error is the cause of many of these accidents and that educational efforts should be able to affect a reduction of accidental injury and death. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration claims that approximately half of all fatalities, 47,093, occur during traffic accidents. The second most common site for accidents is the home. Although there has been a general trend toward reduction in home accidents during the past 75 years, the very young and the elderly remain significantly impacted by residential accidental injury and death. Seventy-five percent of all fatal burns occur in the home, and in 1988 6,277 persons died in home fires; half of these fires were related to smoking. Although smoke detectors can significantly reduce the number of injuries and deaths, 20 percent of all homes are not protected, and an estimated one-third of installed detectors are not functional. During the past year the number of deaths caused by work-related accidents was 10,700. Agriculture, including forestry and fishing, was responsible for the greatest number (15 percent) of work-related deaths. Leisure time pursuits, particularly drowning, were also a frequent cause of accidental death. Boating-related deaths were traced to alcohol abuse in nearly 50 percent of all such accidents.

Crash injuries, National Research Council, Home accidents, United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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Percutaneous injuries during operation: who is at risk for what?

Article Abstract:

A recent study found that surgeons received needle-stick injuries in seven percent of all the surgical procedures observed. However, 77% involved injuries from suture needles, and none were caused by hollow-bore needles. These are the needles commonly associated with transmission of potentially infected blood, but there have been few cases of hollow-needle stick injuries in operating rooms. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that the risk of an HIV-infected surgeon transmitting the virus to a patient is between 2 and 24 cases for every million operations. Surgeons can reduce this risk by using an instrument to hold the suture needle and another to hold the tissue. Almost half of the needle sticks in the study occurred because the surgeons used their fingers to hold the tissue.

Editorial, Surgery, Surgeons

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