Epidemiology of Trauma Patients Presenting to Orthopaedic Department in A Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Objective: To record the epidemiological statistics of orthopaedic trauma patients presenting to a major trauma center of Pakistan.

Methods: In this descriptive study, 5527 patients who presented to the emergency of Orthopaedics department of Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Rawalpindi from January 2015 to January 2016 were included. Those who presented with serious injuries associated with trauma fulfilled the criteria.

Results: Out of 5527 patients, 3002(54.31%) were males and 2525(45.68%) were females with male to female ratio of 1.19:1. Lower limb fractures were found in 2516(45.52%) patients as compared to upper limb fractures, which only occurred in 1625(29.40%) of the patients.

Most of the patients who presented with fractures belonged to the age group of 21-30 years. Motorcycle accident victims made up 34.20% of the total 5527 patients under study, making it the leading cause of trauma admissions. A rise was seen in patients presenting due to trauma during summer season (April-September) with their incidence 60.29% as compared to those admitted during winter season in which the incidence decreased to 39.71%. 2534 (45.85%) patients out of total 5527 patients were discharged on the same day of admission.

Conclusion: We conclude that preventive measures based upon these statistics can help to plan out strategies, which will not only reduce the trauma incidence if implemented on a national level but also guide regarding allocation of resources, which will benefit the patient in long run.

Key words: Epidemiology, trauma, tertiary care hospital