Background
Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) contribute to 90% of injuries occurring in the world. Liver is the one of the commonest organ injured in abdominal trauma. This study aims to highlight the demographic and management profile of liver injury patients, presenting to four urban Indian university hospitals in India.
Methods
This is a retrospective registry-based study. Data of patients with liver injury either isolated or concomitant with other injuries was used using the ICD-10 code, S36.1 for liver injury. The severity of injury was graded based on the World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) grading for liver injuries.
Results
A total of 368 liver injury patients were analysed. 89% were males, with road traffic injuries being the commonest mechanism. As per World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) liver injury grade, there were 126 (33.7%) grade I, 87(23.6%) grade II, 67(18.2%) grade III & 88 (24.5%) grade IV injuries. The overall mortality was 16.6%. 262 patients (71.2%) were managed non-operatively (NOM) & 106 (38.8%) were operated. 90.1% of those managed non-operatively, survived.
Conclusion
In this multi-centre cohort of liver injury patients from urban university hospitals in India, the commonest profile of patient with a was a young male, with a blunt injury to the abdomen due to a road traffic accident. Success rate of non-operative management of liver injury is comparable to other countries.