A review of major trauma admissions to a tertiary adult referral hospital over a ten year period: Fewer patients, similar survival

The characteristics and outcomes of trauma admissions to an adult general surgery ward in a tertiary teaching hospital

“…This age group is generally active and vulnerable to trauma and constitutes the majority of the population in LMICs. Males constituted 79.3% of trauma admissions in agreement with others with ranges from 57.7%–82.5% [ 5 , [7] , [8] , [9] , 16 , 17 , 19 , 23 , [25] , [26] , [27] ].…”

“…Pre-hospital transport was handled by the public inter-hospital ambulance network followed by emergency medical rescue ambulances similar to another report from Botswana [ 19 ]. Self-referral to our hospital occurred in 12.7% as opposed to 62.7% reported by Solon et al [ 16 ], perhaps reflecting the tertiary-level status of our hospital. This could also be due to the well-developed public inter-hospital ambulance transfers run by the government.…”

“…[ 1 ]. As reported by others [ 16 , 17 , 19 , 25 ], most of our trauma patients were young with a median age of 30 years. Injury rates are higher in males than females except for 80 years and older where the gender difference disappears [ 1 ].…”

“…About 5.8% of all trauma patients warrant inpatient care [ 1 ]. Trauma accounts for 10%–30% of all hospital admissions [ 7 , 19 ], and a significant number of total and emergency surgical admissions [ 8 , 11 , 16 , 23 ]. In this study trauma contributed 22.1% of total GS admissions and 44.1% emergency surgical admissions.…”

“…Inferior quality data, limited resources, inadequate pre-hospital care and administrative and organisational concerns are described as the major challenges in developing trauma registries in LMICs [ 13 , 14 ]. Hospital-based data on trauma admissions can be particularly helpful to establish the local injury burden and characteristics, both of which are central to organise and utilise trauma care systems to provide optimal patient care [ 16 , 17 ].…”