Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of road traffic crashes related thoracic traumas: analysis of 5095 hospitalized chest injury patients

BACKGROUND: Road traffic crashes related (RTCR) chest traumas remain important global public health challenge. The impact of boosting market of automobile vehicles in China during last decade on thoracic injury needs to be defined. This study aimed to review and analyze the demographic and clinical characteristics of RTCR thoracic injuries in China. METHODS: Clinical records of patients with thoracic trauma admitted to thoracic surgery department between January 2003 and June 2020 were retrospectively retrieved and reviewed. Patients’ profiles and clinical characteristics were comparatively analyzed between road traffic crashes caused injury and other injury mechanisms, and in RTCR chest trauma patients before January 2011 (2003 group), and after January 2011 (2011 group), when is considered as the beginning year of Chinese household vehicle era. RESULTS: The study included 5095 thoracic trauma patients with mean age of 50.2 years, of whom 79.4% were male. Most of the patients (70.3%, n = 3583) had rib fractures. Associated injuries were present in 52.0% of the patients, of them 78.5% (n = 2080) were extremity fractures. Road traffic crashes accounted for 41.4% (n = 2108) of the injuries, most of them (98.0%) were related to motor vehicles. In comparison with other chest trauma mechanisms, RTCR chest injuries affected females and older males more frequently, with a higher incidence of rib fractures and sternum fractures, and higher injury severity scores (ISS) (all p < 0.05). Surgeries were required in 1495 (70.9%) patients of the RRTCR chest traumas, while the majority of non-RTCR thoracic injuries were managed conservatively or with tube thoracostomy (30.2%, n = 901). RTCR chest traumas caused longer hospital stay (13.0 ± 9.6 days vs. 11.8 ± 7.4 days, p = 0.001), higher ICU usage (30.7% vs. 19.6%, p = 0.001), higher rate of ventilator support (12.9% vs. 7.5%, p = 0.001), and higher mortalities (3.8% vs. 1.6%, p = 0.005) than that of non-RTRA chest injuries. For RTCR patients, when compared with 2003 group, 2011 group had similar patterns in terms of accident category, associated injury and treatment. However, 2011 group had more females (38.5% vs. 18.0%, p = 0.001) and older males (50.6 ± 9.7 vs. 47.9 ± 17.2, p = 0.001), with a higher ISS (18.3 ± 10.2 vs. 17.1 ± 8.9, p = 0.004), and fewer were managed with chest tubes (25.0% vs. 29.2%, p = 0.031). Clinical outcomes were not significantly different between the groups in terms of hospital length of stay, intensive care unit (ICU) usage, ICU length of stay, duration of ventilator hours and mortality. However, the 2011 group had more patients requiring ventilator support (14.4% vs. 10.6%, p = 0.011). CONCLUSIONS: Road traffic crashes remain to be the major etiology of thoracic injuries in China, which usually affects middle-aged males, causing rib fractures with concomitant injuries frequently occurring to other organ systems. Treatments mainly include tube thoracotomy and surgical procedures. Although the clinical characteristics and outcomes of traffic accident related chest traumas are largely unchanged in spite of the rapid increasing numbers of motor vehicles, variations in the pattern of injuries by gender, age, injury severity and ventilator usage may still provide important information for targeted management.