Emergency Medicine Test Prep

Answer: C - The child's body makes it susceptible to different injury patterns than adults. Simply by virtue of their size, there is more force per square inch of body surface than adults. In children, the abdomen begins at the level of the nipple and both the supple rib cage and underdeveloped abdominal muscles afford little protection to internal organs. This makes children vulnerable to injury, and as a result multi-organ injury is more frequent. Since a child's bones are more flexible than adult's, it is possible for a child to have serious internal injuries without fracture.