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. 2021 Feb 23:12:75.
doi: 10.25259/SNI_944_2020. eCollection 2021.

Prevalence of anemia in pediatric patients of traumatic brain injury and problems associated with management in a developing country: Unfolding of an underrated comorbidity

Mohammad Ashraf  1   2 , Usman Ahmad Kamboh  2 , Mohammad Zubair  2 , Kashif Ali Sultan  2 , Muhammad Asif Raza  2 , Syed Shahzad Hussain  2 , Naveed Ashraf  2
Affiliations

Prevalence of anemia in pediatric patients of traumatic brain injury and problems associated with management in a developing country: Unfolding of an underrated comorbidity

Mohammad Ashraf et al. Surg Neurol Int. .

Abstract

Background: Pediatric anemia has a high prevalence in developing countries such as Pakistan. It is common knowledge among hospital specialties but little is done to manage this condition by hospitalists. The issue is compounded with a poor primary care infrastructure nationally. The aim of this study is to bring to light the high prevalence of anemic children in neurosurgery and to describe the difficulties in managing their anemia in a tertiary hospital setting. A literature review is presented highlighting the socioeconomic difficulties that contribute to this widespread comorbidity and the difficulty in managing it from a hospital specialty point of view.

Methods: A prospective descriptive case series was carried out between March 2020 and September 2020. All patients under the age of 13 who presented to our department for traumatic brain injury (TBI) meeting our inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled and assessed for the presence and severity of anemia. Demographic data were collected. Following discharge, patients were referred to our hospital's pediatrics' anemia clinic which was before their first neurosurgery follow-up 2 weeks following discharge and attendance to follow up was documented.

Results: The prevalence of anemia was 78.9%. Over 95% of patients attended their neurosurgery follow-up but only 28% of patients attended their referral to the anemia clinic.

Conclusion: Anemia is highly prevalent in children presenting to neurosurgery for TBI and its longitudinal management has difficulties with lost to follow up in a tertiary hospital setting. There is a need for national initiatives to reduce the prevalence of anemia but concurrently better strategies need to be devised to manage anemic children in a hospital setting.

Keywords: Anemia and traumatic brain injury; Anemia in children in a developing country; Anemia in children with traumatic brain injury; Anemia in pediatric neurosurgery patients; Pediatric anemia in a developing country.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Age range of anemic patients in our series and severity of anemia per age group.
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