Epidemiological Profile of Trauma Victims Attending a Tertiary Care Hospital in Delhi and Application of Haddon Matrix to Identify Risk Factors of Road Traffic Accidents

Author(s):  
Shubham Sharma ◽  
Madhu Kumari Upadhya
Author(s):  
Muthukumar T. ◽  
Zile Singh ◽  
Vishnu Prasad R. ◽  
Abel K. Samuel ◽  
Raja T. K.

Background: Road traffic accidents (RTA) are the only public health problem for which society and decision makers still accept death and disability among young people on a large scale. This study was undertaken to determine the various epidemiological factors influencing RTA with a view to suggest appropriate remedial measures for prevention of accidents.Methods: A hospital based prospective observational study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Puducherry. All the patients admitted in the hospital due to RTA from Jan to Dec 2014 were interviewed by using a pre-tested and pre-designed questionnaire. Data was entered in MS Excel and analysed using SPSS version 21.0. Institute ethics committee clearance was obtained.Results: Among 541 participants, 50% of the victims were in the productive age group of 20-40 yrs. The approximate speed of majority of the vehicles (55.6%) at the time of accident was 40-80 km/hr. Among the accident victims, 85.8% of the two wheeler riders did not use helmet and 70.9% of the car drivers did not wear seat belt at the time of accident. Around 39% of the drivers were under the influence of alcohol at the time of accident. Mobile phone is the major cause of distraction (51.9%) at the time of accident.Conclusions: Based on this study it is evident that prevention and control of most of the modifiable factors can bring about a change in the statistics that would ensure our future to be safer.


Author(s):  
Tanuja R. Brahmankar ◽  
Sachin K. Sharma

Background: Medico-legal case (MLC) can be defined as a case of injury or ailment, etc., in which investigations by the law-enforcing agencies are essential to fix the responsibility regarding the causation of the said injury or ailment. Medico-legal cases are an integral part of medical practice that is frequently encountered by medical officers working in casualty. Hence the present study is carried out to find out the frequency and pattern of medico-legal cases reported at a tertiary care hospital and to highlight the vulnerable gender, age, residence and the cause. Methods: It is a record based cross sectional study in which all the MLC cases registered in MLC record book during a period of 6 months (January 13– June 13) were included. Cases found non medico-legal were excluded. Variables considered were gender, age, residence and cause. Findings were expressed in numbers and percentages. Results: Total cases were 2350, of which 1866 (79.4%) were males and 484 (20.6%) were females. Maximum cases were from the age group of 21-30 years i.e., 828 (35.2%). 1440 (61.27%) were residents of urban area. Most of the medico-legal cases registered were due to assault (27.2%) followed by medical examination of prisoners(25.9%), road traffic accidents (19.7%), fall (6.9%), snake bite (6.6%), poisoning (4.3%), domestic injuries (4.3%), unknown bite (2.2%), unknown found at railway station (1.6%), brought dead (0.6%), burn (0.2%) & others (0.5%). Conclusions: Majority of the victims were males, young adults and urban inhabitants. Most common indication for medico-legal cases was assault followed by medical check-up of prisoners and road traffic accidents. 


Author(s):  
Zaeema Ahmer ◽  
Aisha Siddiqui

Introduction Injuries sustained during Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) amounts to a serious public health crisis. The aim of the study was to determine the body parts most likely affected in an RTA in patients brought to Accident and Emergency (A&E) department of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), the largest tertiary care hospital of Karachi. Method A descriptive cross-sectional study was done in January-March 2019 among 371 respondents aged 15-65 years. Study participants were recruited through non-probability convenience sampling. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data on sociodemographic variables and type, severity and nature of injury. Chi Square test was used to determine the significant difference between using safety precautions with body parts affected. All analysis was performed on SPSS version 20. Results Out of 371 study participants, 64.4% (n=239) were between 15-35 years with 91.9% (n=338) males. In 77.1% (n=286) cases, emergency medical services responded in less than one hour and first aid was provided by doctor to 95.7% (n=355) at hospital. In 82.5% (n=306) cases, private vehicles were involved, with 46.1% (n=171) motorcycles. In 79.8% (n=296) cases, bone injury was prevalent, with 57.1% (n=212) leg injuries, which was the most frequently affected body part. Majority, 56.2% of the study participants who did not wear seat belts had chest area affected (p=0.006).  Conclusion It is concluded that males of 15-35 years who were motorcyclists were more prone to RTAs with lower limbs more frequently being affected. Safety precautions like wearing seatbelts provide protection against RTAs.  


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