One aspects of paediatric trauma medicine that really appealed to me when I entered this field just over 10 years ago, was the challenge of non-operative management of blunt injuries. Like most colleagues, I certainly have no deep aversion to the blood spattered, adrenaline rich milieu of emergency surgery, but when working in adult trauma units, I had found the endless routine of operating on victims of gunshots and knife attacks both predictable and depressing. At Red Cross Children's Hospital, my happy experience has been to deal mostly with blunt injuries, usually the result of falls or traffic collisions, and where clinical diagnostic …