Trauma in Guilan (North of Iran): An Epidemiologic Study

Abstract

Injuries, especially traffic accidents are so important causes of death, disability, hospital expenses, economic damages to the society which World Health Organization selected them as the main subjects for investigation and research. We have done an epidemiologic study about trauma in Guilan, a province in north of Iran. This is  a descriptive study carried out on patients with traumatic injuries, admitted in Poursina Teaching Hospital, during September 2005 to July 2006. Data were collected prospectively using a data collection form including demographic information, mechanism of trauma, anatomical site of injuries, according to AIS90 and severity of head trauma according to glasgow coma scale (GCS). Data were processed by SPSS 11.5 and are shown in tables and figures. Overall 3598 patients admitted. Mean age was 31.85 ± 17.76 years with male to female ratio  about 3.5:1. Most of patients were 25-44 years old (33.9%). Traffic accidents were the leading  cause of injuries (73.84%) and then fall (15.7%). Motorcycle was the most common mode of transport in our patients (47.07%) after that car (24.3%). Occurrence of traffic accidents increased through evening. Forty six percent of patients transported to hospital by people or came themselves (46.42%). Head and neck were the most common injured part of body (82.4 %,) however about in 81.66% of patients were mild and then limb and pelvis (34.7%). Finally about 2.8% of them died. A trauma especially traffic accidents are an important public health issue in Guilan, we recommend conducting other studies focusing on risk factors in details, and considering injury prevention in local decision making.