TITLE:
Injury Patterns and Treatment Outcome of Road Traffic Crash Victims at the Emergency Department of the Regional Hospital Limbe, Cameroon
AUTHORS:
Mahamat Yannick Ekani Boukar, Nana Theophile Chunteng, Freddy Bombah, Georges Bwelle, Cyrille Chopkeng, Guy Aristide Bang, Eric Patrick Savom, Divine Mokake, Pius Fokam, Alain Chichom, Arthur Essomba, Marcellin Ngowe, Maurice Aurelien Sosso
KEYWORDS:
Traumatic Injuries, Limbe Regional Hospital, Cameroon
JOURNAL NAME:
Surgical Science,
Vol.13 No.3,
March
31,
2022
ABSTRACT: Background: Traumatic
injuries constitute a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide with a
global burden that is on the rise. The aim of this study is to analyse
preliminary data of the Limbe trauma registry, to describe the injury patterns and determine the outcome of
care of the injured who were treated in the emergency department of the
regional hospital Limbe in Cameroon. Methodology: This
was a descriptive secondary analysis of prospective data collected on injury at
Limbe Regional Hospital in two years, between October 2008 and October 2010.
All cases of injury presenting to the emergency department of Limbe Regional
Hospital were included in a prospective trauma registry. Data was collected
with a pre-tested data entry form and included the age, sex, mechanism of
injury, delay before arrival to hospital, body part injured, description of
lesions and outcome at the emergency. Descriptive
analyses were done using STATA 14. Comparisons between groups were
evaluated using Chi-squared test or Kruskal-Wallis and p-values Results: A
total of 2400 cases of injury were recorded during the study period with more
males (68%) than females. The ages ranged from 0 to 90 years with a peak
between 20 to 39 years. Road traffic crash was the most common cause of injury
representing 60.81% of the population (n = 1434); other causes were burns,
falls, domestic injuries, assaults, and
labour accidents. The accidents mostly involved motor cycle alone (42.03%). Concerning the outcome of care at the
emergency department, 88.73% (n = 1260) were discharged. Conclusion: The burden of road traffic injuries in south west Cameroon is high. Motorcycles
are mostly involved alone or with pedestrians and/or cars.