An orthopedic injury in a child at the ED shouldn’t be treated the same as a similar injury in an adult.
“As a child grows and their growth plates mature, their injury pattern can be quite different from adults and therefore is treated differently,” said Annalise Sorrentino, MD, FAAP, FACEP, professor of pediatrics in the division of emergency medicine at the the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Dr. Sorrentino will discuss the identification and treatment of pediatric orthopedic injuries in her session, “Pediatric Orthopedics: Avoid the Pitfalls.”
Orthopedic injuries in children can have both anatomic and physiologic differences compared with those in adults, Dr. Sorrentino said. Another difference between children and adults is the importance of treating subtle fractures.
“Injuries that might result in a sprain or strain in an adult actually may be a fracture in a child, and failure to recognize that and treat it can cause long-lasting effects,” she said.
Dr. Sorrentino’s presentation will discuss the latest in pediatric orthopedics, including the differences between adults and children, as well as commonly encountered pediatric injuries such as physeal and elbow injuries. She will also touch on common topics in pediatric orthopedics, such as adequately treating an injured child for pain.
“That pain doesn’t stop when they leave the hospital,” Dr. Sorrentino said. She will present some data on analgesia choices and touch on the controversy of using nonsteroidal
anti-inflammatory agents in children.
Her presentation will briefly discuss the rise of obesity in children, and how that has sometimes led to more complicated injuries. Dr. Sorrentino will bring her advice
to life with case studies of some of the challenging injuries she has handled.
Vanessa Caceres is a freelance medical writer based in Florida.
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