trauma

Most pediatric burns can be prevented.Childhood burns can happen when least expected: An inquisitive toddler crawling around the kitchen pulls on a coffee pot’s dangling electrical cord, causing the scalding liquid to burn his tiny arm. The Trauma and Burn Program at Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital admits approximately 165 burn patients a year and treats another 200 on an outpatient basis. Robert P. Foglia, M.D., director of the program, offers tips on how to prevent household burns, the leading cause of accidental deaths in the home.

Most pediatric burns can be prevented.Childhood burns can happen when least expected: An inquisitive toddler crawling around the kitchen pulls on a coffee pot’s dangling electrical cord, causing the scalding liquid to burn his tiny arm. The Trauma and Burn Program at Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital admits approximately 165 burn patients a year and treats another 200 on an outpatient basis. Robert P. Foglia, M.D., director of the program, offers tips on how to prevent household burns, the leading cause of accidental deaths in the home.

Heather Parrott and Jay Webb measure accelerations on a frozen field.This month, more than 130 million people will tune their televisions to football’s biggest event, the Super Bowl. It’s not certain which team will win, but it’s a good bet that someone may be injured. In fact, injuries are common to football at every level. In recent years, the sport has focused on playing fields as a significant source of injury, and new surfaces have been developed. But are the new surfaces safer? Emergency medicine researchers at the School of Medicine have found that in terms of concussion risk, the new fields are no safer, and they may get worse over time.

Heather Parrott and Jay Webb measure accelerations on a frozen field.This month, more than 130 million people will tune their televisions to football’s biggest event, the Super Bowl. It’s not certain which team will win, but it’s a good bet that someone may be injured. In fact, injuries are common to football at every level. In recent years, the sport has focused on playing fields as a significant source of injury, and new surfaces have been developed. But are the new surfaces safer? Emergency medicine researchers at the School of Medicine have found that in terms of concussion risk, the new fields are no safer, and they may get worse over time.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), car crashes are the leading cause of death for children. Almost 2,000 children age 14 and under are killed in automobile crashes each year and another 280,000 are injured. Proper use of car seats reduces the risk of death significantly — by as much as 71 percent for infants and by about 55 percent for toddlers. The CDC also estimates that 50,000 serious injuries could be prevented and 455 lives saved each year if all children under 5 used safety seats. In spite of the dangers, 40 percent of American children 4 and under routinely ride unrestrained. But Emergency Department physicians at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis are trying to change that. They are targeting low income families, training them in proper use of child safety seats and then giving those families gift certificates that can be redeemed for the seats. The Safe and Secure program hopes to cut down on deaths and injuries from car crashes by providing more than 2,000 free car and booster seats to Missouri families who live below the poverty level as determined by Medicaid.

Sometimes two shots are better than one. Washington University pediatrician, Robert M. Kennedy, M.D., professor of pediatrics, and other Emergency Department researchers at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, have developed an “ouchless” IV technique. Before inserting a big IV needle into the hand of a child, the physicians first apply numbing gel. Then, they use a tiny needle to inject a local anesthetic into the area before they finally introduce the bigger IV needle. By the time an IV is started, the injection site is numb, and patients who already are in an emergency department, don’t have to face even more pain.