A scoping review of two decades of pediatric humanitarian care during wartime

Abstract

ABSTRACT Humanitarian care is a vital component of the wartime mission. Children comprise a significant proportion of casualties injured by explosives and penetrating weapons. Children face a variety of unique injury patterns in the combat setting as high-powered firearms and explosives are rarely seen in the civilian setting. We sought to perform a scoping review of pediatric research from the recent US-led wars in Afghanistan, and Iraq conflicts beginning in 2001. We used Google Scholar and PubMed to identify pediatric combat literature published between 2001 and 2022. We utilized the PRISMA-ScR Checklist to conduct this review. We identified 52 studies that met inclusion for this analysis—1 prospective observational study, 50 retrospective studies, and 1 case report. All the original research studies were retrospective in nature except for one. We identified one prospective study that was a post hoc subanalysis from an overall study assessing the success of prehospital lifesaving interventions. Most of the articles came from varying registries created by the United States and British militaries for the purposes of trauma performance improvement. The deployed health service support mission often includes treatment of pediatric trauma patients. The deployed health service support mission often includes treatment of pediatric trauma patients. We found that available literature from this setting is limited to retrospective studies except for one prospective study. Our findings suggest that pediatric humanitarian care was a significant source of medical resource consumption within both of the major wars. Further, many of the lessons learned have directly translated into changes in civilian pediatric trauma care practices highlighting the need for collaborative scientific developments between the military and civilian trauma programs. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Systematic Review/Meta-Analyses; Level III.