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The Prevalence of Acute Head Injury at Mbarara Regional
Referral Hospital, Southwestern Uganda Abstract Head injury is a major cause of emergency admissions and commonly results from assault and road traffic injuries. At Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH) there an average 300 head injury admissions per year (25% of total trauma admissions). Mortality is high, currently being 36% for severe head injury in developed countries. Many of these deaths could be prevented with better-equipped emergency services and critical care units. However the relevant information for planning of these services is often inadequate. A retrospective study was therefore conducted to; determine the magnitude of acute head injury observed, causative factors and the immediate outcome of these patients. Two hundred eighty (22.5 % of total trauma admissions) patients were diagnosed and managed for acute head injury between April 2004 and March 2005 (inclusive). The majority of patients were males (80.7%) and the age group 15 – 29 was most affected (46.2% of patients). Road traffic injuries were leading cause of admissions (61.5%). One hundred fifty five (57.9%) patients had mild head injury while 14.3% had severe head injury. Fifty nine percent (59%) of the patients were managed conservatively while 30 patients had emergency interventional surgery with the commonest procedures being burr hole and craniectomy. Seventeen percent (17%) of all the patients died, with motorcycle accidents being most fatal. In conclusion it can be said that acute head injury is the leading cause of emergency trauma admissions at MRRH and mortality is still high. |
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