Abdominal Trauma: Occurrence and Outcome, An experience from 500 Patients

Abstract

Different forms of trauma have been a leading cause of death as seen in the Accident and Emergency specially in the age group of 1-50 years. Most of the usual causes outlined in the published literature include road traffic accidents, stab wounds, falls from height and gunshot wounds. The abdomen is traumatized in about 10-15% of cases; this would be attributed to its large surface area compared with other parts of the body. This prospective study was carried out over a period of one year starting January 2015 till December 2015, involving 500 cases with isolated abdominal injuries in some of the Gulf states and Iraq major hospitals. We highlight the incidence, gender distribution, available modalities of investigation and methods of improving management and prognosis of abdominal trauma in these variable hospitals. There were 500 purely abdominal trauma patients involved in the review over this one-year period. Penetrating injuries were seen in 66 patients (13.2%) and nonpenetrating in 434 patients (86.8%). Gunshot injuries and fall from heights were (2.02%) and (3.05%) of the injuries respectively. The overall ratio of non-penetrating to penetrating injuries was approximately 6:1. Wound sepsis was the most common complication of patients that underwent surgical exploration; mortality rate was (10%). The major cause of death was irreversible hypovolemic shock due to severe blood loss either prior to arrival in hospital or uncontrollable hemorrhage in the operating room and extreme coagulopathy in the immediate post-operative period. We advocate rapid transportation and prompt resuscitative measures, availability of modern technological investigations as well as surgical and intensive therapy skills in improving the outcome for victims of abdominal trauma regardless of the etiology. Spreading more awareness of the major factors in the causation of vehicular accidents and health education for drivers and road users, conspicuous display of speed limits as well as identification of the known accident black spots where road traffic accidents have historically been concentrated will be of significance in the prevention of future accidents and complications.

Abdominal Trauma: Occurrence and Outcome, An experience from 500 Patients

“…Trauma remains one of the leading cause of death in the age 1-50 year [1]. It is of importance to address the issues related to the presentation and management of these cases in our catchment area in which majority of the population is young adults usually involved in penetrating and blunt trauma due to Road Traffic Accident.…”