As compared to adolescent boys, girls have better chances of surviving a trauma-related shock. Hormonal differences can play a big role in the sex-based outcome disparities following traumatic shock in children. Female hormones can help in survival after a traumatic shock and thereby, protect girls after a traumatic injury. This effect is not seen in prepubescent children. To assess the role of hormones in protection after a traumatic shock, researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland studied 46,800 children, aged up to 17 years, registered in the National Pediatric Trauma Registry between April 1994 and September 2001. This registry contained information on pediatric trauma patients from over 90 trauma centers in the United States. The results highlighted that as compared to boys, adolescent girls had a 2.5-fold survival advantage after a trauma-associated shock. Of the nearly 700 children with severe injury and shock, the pre-adolescent girls and boys, aged 11 years and younger, showed no gender-associated differences in survival from such injuries. However, among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, it was found that girls were significantly less likely to die following traumatic shock than were boys. After adjusting for injury type and severity, and other co-illnesses, adolescent girls had a risk of death 62 percent lower than adolescent boys. Thus, female hormones can have a protective effect against severe trauma associated shock.
Archives of Surgery,
September 2007