Pediatric Cranioencephalic Trauma of Ballistic Origin (Case Reports)

Abstract

We report 2 cases of stray bullet injury to brain in children of age 3 months and 7 years respectively. One of them had an occipital penetrating wound (with no exit) and the other had trans-temporal wound (with both entry and exit points). The delay in doing a CT scan was 1 and 8 days respectively. The average duration of surgery was 80 min. The average time to complete control imaging was 18.5 days. Followup imaging showed cerebral swelling and re-bleeding in one patient while it was unremarkable in the other child. Pediatric head injuries due to firearms are very rare, but with high morbidity and mortality. Their management in limited resource settings is challenging.