Outcomes from television sets toppling onto toddlers

Objective: To assess outcomes of trauma caused by television sets falling o nto children. Methods: Retrospective review of medical charts of 183 children aged 7 year s and younger hospitalized for injuries caused by falling television sets. Descriptive statistics were applied. Data Sources: Phase 2 (1988-1995) and phase 3 (1995-1999) of the National P ediatric Trauma Registry. Outcome Measures: Demographics, injured body region, injury severity measur ed by the Injury Severity Score; length of hospital stay, admission to the intensive care unit, surgical intervention, in-hospital death rate, disabil ity resulting from the injury, and disposition at discharge from the hospit al. Results: The sample population represented 0.5% of all National Pediatric T rauma Registry admissions in this age group. More than half (57.4%) of the children were boys, and more than three quarters (76.0%) were 1 to 4 years of age. In most cases (95.1%), the injury occurred at home. Most children ( 68.3%) sustained head injury, and 43.7% sustained injuries to multiple body regions. More than a quarter (28.4%) of the children had injuries of moder ate to critical severity (Injury Severity Score, 10-75), about a third (31. 1%) required admission to the intensive care unit, and 20.2% needed 1 or mo re surgical interventions. The average length of hospitalization was 3.3 da ys. Five children (2.7%) died, and 48 (26.2%) developed functional limitati ons, which required discharge to a rehabilitation facility in 5 cases. Most (94.0%) of the children returned to their home. The proportion of televisi on set-related injuries increased more than 100% during the study period. Conclusions: The injuries reported are not trivial. Not only did they requi re hospitalization, but they also resulted in an in-hospital death rate com parable to the 2.5% rate observed in children of the same age group injured by unintentional blunt trauma, inclusive of motor vehicle traffic-related injuries. Since virtually all American children are at risk for such injury , we suggest that television set designs be modified to reduce the incidenc e and severity of the problem.