CHARACTERISTICS OF REPEAT TRAUMA PATIENTS, SAN-DIEGO COUNTY

Data on 22 312 admissions to the San Diego County Trauma System were u sed to identify 185 trauma patients admitted repeatedly to trauma unit s. These patients were compared with the entire group of nonrepeating trauma patients admitted during the 80-month period of the study. In c omparison with nonrepeaters, the repeaters were younger, were more oft en men, were more often Black, and were much more frequently victims o f assault. Forty-eight percent of the repeaters were injured by the sa me general mechanism on both admissions.