A descriptive study of trauma cases encountered in the Grand M’Bour Hospital Emergency Department in Senegal

INTRODUCTION: This study analyzed the trends of trauma cases that presented to the Emergency Department (ED) in the Grand M'Bour Hospital. We examined demographics of patients, mechanisms of trauma and types of injuries that result and times from injury to arrival. METHODS: This was a descriptive study using prospective ED trauma cases. Patients were selected for the study if their chief complaint was related to a traumatic injury. A trauma flow sheet was developed to obtain information. Data was collected from 6/22/16-7/13/16, with 105 cases recorded. Abstracted data included date, time of arrival, time of injury, age, gender, mechanism of injury, injury sustained and disposition. RESULTS: Patients presented to the ED for 13 different trauma-related reasons. 71% of the patients encountered had a mechanism of injury related to falls or motor vehicle accidents. The majority of patients who suffered from a fall-or motor vehicle-related injury were children, with ages 0-10 representing 31% and ages 11-20 representing 14% of the total patients. While 29% of patients were seen within 1 hour of the time of their injury, 10% of the patients were not seen until days after their injury. CONCLUSION: We report that traumatic injuries are most commonly a result of fall-related and vehicle-related accidents. Children under the age of 20 years old are a vulnerable population for traumatic injuries. We observed that many patients were unable to seek care within a day of their injury. This was concerning that proper emergency transportation was not available, leading to potential complications or improper healing of injuries. Knowing these trends, an ED can be better prepared to treat these patients.