The epidemiology of traumatic injury-related fetal mortality in Pennsylvania, 1995-1997: the role of motor vehicle crashes

dMethods: Rates and causes of traumatic injury-related fetal deaths in Penn sylvania were determined from a manual review of all fetal death certificat es filed from 1995 to 1997 (7131 cases). Results: Thirty one traumatic inju ry cases were identified (6.5/100000 live births). Most cases (94%) could b e identified from the diagnosis code of 760.5 (maternal injury) and 87% con tained narratives indicating specific injury mechanisms. Motor vehicles wer e the leading cause of injury (81%). Placental separation was the leading d iagnosis (42%). Conclusions: The ICD-9-CM code 760.5 appears to be a specif ic indicator of traumatic fetal death, though it is not known how sensitive an indicator it is. Though not usually E-coded, the death certificates con tained enough information to allow ascertainment of injury mechanism. These are very conservative estimates of the burden of the problem. The major ro le that motor vehicle injuries have on reported traumatic fetal injury deat hs was shown and a significant new challenge for child passenger safety adv ocates is indicated. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. Ail rights reserved.