Hospitalized injuries and deaths in a trauma unit in upper Egypt

CONTEXT: It is predicted that injuries will be among the top 20 leading causes of death worldwide by 2030. In Egypt, injuries burden is significant as it was the fifth leading cause of death in 2004. Also, it's considered as a hidden epidemic due to under-reporting. AIMS: To identify the patterns of hospitalized injury cases at Trauma Unit in Assiut University Hospitals and to provide an indication about who are at increased risk of hospitalization or death due to injury. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A descriptive retrospective study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Registered data of all hospitalized injuries from January 2002 to December 2009 at Trauma Unit of Assiut University Hospitals in Upper Egypt were included. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Advanced statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) program version 16 (IBM Corporation - http://www.spss.com) was used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics and tests of significance were used. P value was considered statistically significant when it was less than 0.05 and highly significant when it was less than 0.001. RESULTS: Admitted cases of attended injuries were (31.8%). Most admissions were below the age of 30 years (58.4%). Male to female ratio was 3:1. Falls were the most common injuries (43.6%), followed by transport accidents (31.1%). More than half of deaths (56.4%) were due to transport accidents. Transport accidents, falls, interpersonal violence and gunshot injuries had an early ranking throughout the study period. CONCLUSION: Road traffic injuries, falls and violence are areas of priority in preventive strategies. Paying special attention for young adults is recommended.