World-first hub for child blast injury research will support Ukraine war victims

March 31 ------ The world's first hub for child blast injury research has opened in London and will focus on providing support to victims in Ukraine.

The Centre for Paediatric Blast Injury Studies, a partnership between Imperial College London and Save The Children, will particularly focus on reducing pain in children with limb loss and developing new prosthetics. Almost 1,000 recorded child casualties in Ukraine have been caused by explosive weapons, though actual numbers are expected to be considerably higher.

Anthony Bull, center director and professor of musculoskeletal mechanics at Imperial College London, said: "Children are not just small adults, they're small human beings who have a very different physiology, very different behavior, so they get influenced in a significantly different way than adults by blast injury. Medics are doing a brilliant job of learning how to treat children immediately, saving their lives. But what they don't know is how their first medical intervention might influence their long-term outcome."

The center will fund research students over a four-year period and includes advanced technology such as motion capture and musculoskeletal modelling. Dr Andriy Dvorakevych, a leading surgeon at Lviv City Children's Clinical Hospital in western Ukraine, said he hoped the research center will allow staff at the recently established Unbroken center in Ukraine to become self-sufficient. Dr Dvorakevych, whose hospital has treated around 350 severely wounded children, said: "The main purpose is to treat and rehabilitate patients from Ukraine in Ukraine.

"Right now, there is no prosthetics facilities and technology in Ukraine. That's why all patients who need prosthetic assistance must go to other countries in Europe."

Source: news.sky.com