Assessment of magnitude and factors affecting outcomes of head injury at Addis Ababa burn emergency and trauma hospital, Ethiopia

Abstract

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Head injury is the leading cause of death and disability worldwide and has become one of the highest community health problems worldwide including Ethiopia. This study aims to assess the magnitude and factors affecting the outcome of head injury patients at Addis Ababa burn and emergency treatment Hospital from 01 January 2018 to 31 December 2019.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> A retrospective review was conducted on a patient who had a head injury and visited Addis Ababa burn and emergency treatment Hospital, from 01 January 2018 to 31 December 2019. </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> There were 2163 head injury patients making the incidence of head injury 29.6%. The commonest cause of injury is road traffic accidents accounting for 89 (43.8%) and most patients sustained blunt injury 65 (32%).The commonest computed tomography (CT)-scan finding was intracerebral hemorrhage in 51 (25.1%) patients. Most head injury patients 112 (55.2%) stayed less than 1 week and the commonest complication was meningitis that occurred in 56 (27.6%) of patients. On presentation to hospital 90 (44.3%) had a mild type of traumatic brain injury. There is a significant correlation seen between gender, occupation, and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) with the outcome of head injury (p<0.05).</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Early diagnosis and interventions contributed to the good outcome of the patient. Establishing trauma centers at least in major cities can improve the outcome of head injury patients, by giving early treatment and using ambulances which are used for transportation of laboring mothers also might facilitate early referrals of patients to best centers.</p>

Incidence and Predictors of Mortality Among Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury at University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia: A Retrospective Follow-Up Study

“…6,7 The TBI is particularly frequent in younger people, 4 and Ethiopia has more than 70 million citizens younger than 30 years of age. 8 The prevalence of TBI in Ethiopia is reported as 29-40% [9][10][11] and a study done at the University of Gondar Specialized Hospital showed that the prevalence of TBI was reported as 40.5%. 11 Differences in patient characteristics, socioeconomic status, ICU admission thresholds, health-care systems, and the availability of varying numbers of ICU beds among hospitals had shown to be the causes for the variation across different continents.…”