Major interpersonal violence cases seen in a Pretoria academic hospital over a one-year period, with emphasis on community assault cases

INTRODUCTION: Interpersonal violence cases make up a significant portion of the trauma cases seen in emergency centres in South Africa. Community assaults are extremely violent attacks on suspected perpetrators by members of the community aimed at inflicting serious injury. The aim of this study was to profile the major interpersonal violence cases at Kalafong Hospital with emphasis on the community assaults and how this group compares with non- community assaults regarding demographics, surgical intervention and mortality. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted of the major interpersonal violence cases seen over a one-year period (1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016) at Kalafong Hospital, Pretoria, South Africa. Data was manually collected and entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The Stata 13 statistical program was used for data analysis. RESULTS: During the study period, a total of 578 cases were analysed. Penetrating trauma accounted for 446 (77.2%) cases and blunt trauma for 132 (22.8%) cases. The number of community assault cases was 75 (12.9%). A total of 28 deaths were recorded during this period. Community assaults accounted for 13 (46.4%) of these deaths. Community assault cases had a significantly higher mortality compared to non-community assault cases with 17.3% versus 3%; Odds ratio 6.82 (95% CI 3.04–15.33, p < 0.001). The community assault group also showed a statistically significant difference in the intensive care admission rate with 15.3% compared to 6.9% in the interpersonal violence cases; Odds ratio 2.41 (CI 1.07–5.43, p = 0.028). CONCLUSION: Community assault cases may present with similar demographics when compared to non-community assault cases, but the difference in disposition and outcome was highlighted in this study with a higher intensive care unit admission rate and a higher mortality rate. A multi-centre follow-up study is recommended to compare demographics across Pretoria and to monitor trends in this subgroup of interpersonal violence cases.