Dr Arnab Nag, Dr Indranil Das, Dr Tamal khan

Trauma is an increasing cause of morbidity and mortality in India. This Audit was done to improve the understanding of the mode of trauma, severity of injuries, and outcome of trauma victims in our hospital. This was a retrospective single centre observational study of all trauma patients presenting to emergency department (ED) in Tertiary care Hospital, Kolkata. Details of the incident, injuries, and outcome were noted.

A total of 100 patients were included in the study. The analysis showed that the involved victims of Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) were mostly between 26 to 40 years and was followed closely by the 41-60 year age group. 84% of the patients were male and 16% female. The average length of stay was 6 days and 52 minutes. The most common mechanism of injury for RTAs was 2-wheeler accidents. 16 to 17% of the patients had suffered falls and a very small number were victims of physical assaults. Moderate and Severe head injury was noted in 36- 37% of the patients. 80% had isolated head injury as the primary diagnosis and around 20% of the victims had other associated injuries (mostly Orthopaedic and few Chest and abdominal trauma). Although 37% of the patients had severe head injury, but still 62% did not require any surgical intervention. A total of 37% patients suffered mortality.

This small single centric epidemiological data points to the need for better preparedness and a state of readiness for Emergency Departments to cater to the serious trauma patients being brought in. With the increasing use of vehicles and disregard for traffic rules, the numbers are only going to rise up.

Dr Indranil Das
Senior Consultant and Head, Department of Emergency Medicine
Medica Superspeciality Hospital, Kolkata 
India

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