AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE BURDEN OF TRAUMA IN MAKURDI, NIGERIA

Friday, 31st of July 2015

AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE BURDEN OF TRAUMA IN MAKURDI, NIGERIA

Itodo C Elachi, Williams T Yongu, Odatuwa-Omagbemi D Odoyoh,¹ Daniel D Mue, Edwin I Ogwuche, and Chukwukadibia N Ahachi

Excerpt below; full text, with figures, is at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4477404/

Background:

Trauma leads to considerable morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study is to elucidate the pattern and characteristics of trauma at Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH), Makurdi, Nigeria.

Materials and Methods:

Case records of all patients who presented to the Accident and Emergency (A and E) Department with trauma between January and December 2013 were analyzed for demographic data, types of injuries sustained, causes and circumstances of injuries, as well as outcome of treatment were extracted from the case files and entered onto a computerized questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the software Statistical Package for Social Sciences for Windows version 15.0 (SPSS Inc; Chicago, Illinois).

Results:

A total of 250 traumatized patients were studied consisting of 203 (81.2%) males and 47 (18.8%) females with a modal age group of 21–30 years. Unintentional injuries were the most predominant form of trauma (n = 209, 83.6%) with road traffic accidents being the leading cause (n = 180, 72.0%). Open wounds (n = 95, 28.2%) were the most common form of injury sustained and the extremities (n = 148, 43.5%), the most frequently injured body region. Most patients (n = 133, 53.2%) were treated and discharged home without permanent disabilities, while death occurred in 15.2%.

Conclusion:

Trauma in Makurdi is a predominantly young adult male occurrence with road traffic accidents being the leading etiological factor. Reducing road traffic accidents will likely reduce mortality and morbidity due to trauma.

Keywords: Injuries, Makurdi, Nigeria, road traffic accidents, trauma

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INTRODUCTION

Trauma is no more considered accidental but a preventable epidemic with a unique pattern of host, agent, and environment working in unison to produce injury.[1] Traumatic injuries are associated with significant morbidity and mortality and are of particular relevance currently with technological sophistication in all spheres of life and upsurge in armed conflicts globally. An injury is said to be a bodily lesion at organic level resulting from acute exposure to energy in amounts that exceeds the threshold of physiologic tolerance or the absence of such essentials as heat or oxygen.[2]

Injuries accounted for 16% of the global burden of disease and an estimated 5.8 million deaths in 1998 with injury-related mortality predicted to increase by 40% between 2002 and 2030.[2,3] Mortality statistics, in isolation, do not adequately depict the magnitude of injury as for each death there are many more injuries that resulted in hospitalization, treatment in emergency departments, treatment by practitioners outside the formal health sector, or never received treatment at all.[4] To accurately characterize the burden of injury, nonfatal outcomes are also measured by using disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) which combine the number of years of life lost from premature death with the loss of health from disability among persons with nonfatal injuries.[2]

Patterns and causes of trauma differ from place to place. Road traffic accidents, falls, assaults, firearm injuries, burns, sports injuries, animal bites, and industrial accidents are some causes of of trauma.[5,6] Road traffic accidents are the most common in most studies.[5,6,7] Deaths from road traffic accidents are predicted to increase from 1.2 million in 2002 to 1.9 million in 2020 globally, to become the third leading cause of DALYs losses.[8] Increasing waves of terrorism and civil conflicts are expected to lead to a surge in violence-related injuries.

Trauma care in most developing nations is at infancy level despite the fact that about 90% of injury deaths occur in these nations.[2] Dearth of trauma centers, nonexistent ambulance services and prehospital care, and unavailability of data on trauma are some of the impediments to trauma management in Nigeria. Trauma has been recognized to be preventable over the past few decades and methods for the scientific study of injury prevention have been established.[2] However, the development of effective trauma prevention measures depends on reliable and detailed information on the characteristics and pattern of injury. The aim of this study is to elucidate the pattern and characteristics of trauma at Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH), Makurdi, Nigeria