title: [Clinical characteristics of pediatric victims in the Lushan and Wenchuan earthquakes and experience of medical rescue].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To get a more comprehensive understanding of the clinical characteristics of pediatric victims in earthquake and to summarize the experience of medical rescue.
  
  
  METHODS
  The clinical information was collected from the pediatric victims who were admitted to West China Hospital, Sichuan University following the Lushan earthquake in 2013 and Wenchuan earthquake in 2008. The clinical data were compared between the pediatric victims in the two earthquakes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty-four children under 14 years of age, who were injured in the Lushan earthquake, were admitted to the West China Hospital before April 30, 2013. Compared with the data in the Wenchuan earthquake, the mean age of the pediatric victims in the Lushan earthquake was significantly lower (P<0.01), and the mean time from earthquake to hospitalization was significantly shorter (P<0.01). In the Lushan earthquake, 67.6% of the injured children had variable limb fractures; traumatic brain injury was found in 29.4% of hospitalized children, versus 9.5% in the Wenchuan earthquake (P<0.05). Among the 34 children, no amputation and death occurred, and all the 13 severe cases started to recover.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There were higher proportions of severely injured children and children with traumatic brain injury in the Lushan earthquake than in the Wenchuan earthquake. But these cases recovered well, which was possibly due to timely on-site rescue and transfer and multi-sector, multi-institution, and multidisciplinary cooperation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Surgery, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: Li-Jun
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xue-Yang
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Lu-Gang
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ming-Xing
authors.initials: MX
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Wen-Qiong
authors.initials: WQ
authors.lastname: Xin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D055866:Earthquakes; D004632:Emergency Medical Services; D006801:Humans; D018635:Rescue Work; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*