Pediatric Drowning: Current Management Strategies for Immediate Care

This review will introduce new universal terminology recommended for drowning, review the pathophysiology of drowning, and discuss current management strategies for treating the drowning victim. Drowning is a major burden of injury for children. The drowning process results in hypoxia, the degree of which ultimately determines clinical outcome. No single or combination of variables has proven to be reliably predictive of poor outcome. Initial care is focused on reversing the hypoxia and maintaining cardiovascular stability. Injuries associated with drowning can be complicated by hypothermia as well as predisposing medical and traumatic conditions, all of which will need to be addressed concomitantly. Posthypoxic cerebral encephalopathy is a delayed outcome of drowning associated with the greatest morbidity. Thus, early measures to prevent secondary brain injury are important.

Keywords: pediatric drowning, hypoxia, hypothermia, cerebral encephalopathy