Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Introduction: Trauma is increasingly recognized as a public health problem, amenable to preventable strategies, and the first step in planning for such prevention is establishment of the magnitude and characteristics of the problem. This can only be achieved through a data collection surveillance system, hence a trauma registry. In view of this present study was undertaken to study description of demography and patterns of injury among polytrauma patients attending emergency department, so that suggestions can be made accordingly to reduce the social burden caused by polytrauma. Material and Methods: The present observational study was carried out among 100 poly-trauma patients who presented to emergency department Parameters like age, sex, influence of intoxication, type and mode of injury  were noted as per performa.  The patient’s BP, Respiratory rate and GCS were assessed at the time of presentation and an unweighted Revised Trauma Score was calculated. The patient was then followed up at 6, 24 and 72 hours after presentation to the hospital, the SBP, RR and GCS were measured and an unweighted Revised Trauma Score was calculated at the above mentioned intervals. Injury Severity Score was calculated from the AIS scores. Results: In our study male patients formed the majority of patients with a total of 91 patients (91%) and there were only 9 female patients (9%). Out of the 11polytrauma deaths, there were 10 male patients (90.90). The mean SBP± SD for all patients put together was 99.41± 6.118 mmHg (range 80-110mmHg) at the time of presentation to the hospital and increased to 126.83± 6.638mmHg (range 100-140 mm Hg) at 72 HRS after presentation to the hospital. In the death group, there was decreasing trend between SBP at presentation and at 24 hours after presentation to the hospital with mean SBP being 93.90± 8.70 at the time of admission and 74.66±5.03 mmHg at 24 hours whereas in the discharge group, mean SBP being 100.09± 5.40 mmHg at the time of admission and 116.34±6.67 mmHg at 24 hours. The mean GCS± SD for all patients put together was 12.71± 2.606 at the time of presentation to the hospital and increased to 14.85± 1.103 at 72 HRS after presentation to the hospital. The co-relation between the trends of GCS variation and the final outcome (death vs. discharge) was found to be statistically significant with respective p values of <0.001 and< 0.001 at 0 and 24hours. Conclusion: Data collection registries should be employed and maintained to enable description of demography, mechanism/patterns of injury, and cause of mortality from polytrauma, so that deficiencies in the system could be addressed accordingly and social as well as burden due to trauma can be reduced.
Keywords: Health system; Polytrauma; Road traffic accidents.

Corresponding author: Dr Sanjeev Gupta, Assistant Professor, Department of General Surgery, GMC, Patiala, Punjab, India

This article may be cited as: Gupta S, Kumar A, Gupta P. Assessment of epidemiological factors and clinical profile of polytrauma patients attending emergency – A hospital based study. J Adv Med Dent Scie Res 2017;5(2):161-166.