Abstract
Introduction Child migrants are the most vulnerable population, prone to various health conditions
due to trauma and the bad living conditions that they experience during their migration.
The objective of this study was to determine the pediatric surgical conditions of
migrant children treated in our hospital on their way toward North-West Europe.
Materials and Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on all admitted migrants in one tertiary and
one secondary level hospital from 2016 to 2018. Only migrant children with surgical
issues who had been hospitalized or treated in outpatient clinics were included in
the study.
Results There were 47 migrants admitted to hospitals and outpatient clinics; 32 from Afghanistan,
11 from Iraq, 1 from Syria, 2 from Iran, and 1 from Algeria. There were 27 boys and
20 girls, average age 7.96 years (range: 3 months–17 years). The average length of
hospitalization was 14.1 days (range: 1–48), and average stay in the intensive care
unit (ICU) was 7.4 days (range: 1–15). There were 29 migrants treated in outpatient
clinics, and 18 were hospitalized. The cause of seeking surgical treatment was trauma
in 33 and non-traumatic surgical problems in 14. The most common types of trauma were
isolated fractures which occurred in one, followed by isolated head injury in eight.
Polytrauma occurred in five. A lethal outcome occurred in one 9-year-old boy from
Afghanistan due to severe polytrauma.
Conclusion Trauma, predominantly fractures and head injuries, was the leading cause of morbidity
in migrant children treated in these two hospitals.
Keywords
child migrants - pediatric surgery - trauma
