TRAUMA IN A DISTRICT GENERAL-HOSPITAL

Objectives: To analyze all trauma patients admitted to our hospital ov er a one year period. Design: A prospective hospital-based study. Sett ing: Qatif Central Hospital. Subjects: All patients presented to the A ccident and Emergency Department with trauma excluding bums. Results: Nine hundred and sixteen patients presented to the hospital following trauma. The most common cause was road traffic accidents (55.8%). The next two common causes were an accidental fall (18.3%) and fall from h eight (10.2%). Twelve patients had missile injuries and stab wound wer e inflicted in 17 patients. Children below 15 years of age formed 40.6 % of those admitted following trauma and 38% of those following road t raffic accidents. Seventy-one patients had multisystem injuries and 67 of these sustained their injuries in road traffic accidents. Forty-tw o suffered abdominal injuries and 68 had chest injuries. Thirty-five p atients died giving an overall mortality of 3.8%. Conclusions: Trauma is a major public health problem. It calls for urgent and concerted ac tion aimed at prevention if not total elimination of the preventable c auses of morbidity and mortality. Improvement in trauma care in the Ki ngdom of Saudi Arabia will be possible with the creation and organizat ion of regional trauma centers, trauma audit and trauma registry.