Experience with road traffic accident victims at the Nairobi Hospital

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the clinical and epidemiological data on automobile injuries and to assess the adequacy of road trauma documentation at the Nairobi Hospital. Design: A retrospective descriptive study. Setting: The Accident and Emergency Centre of the Nairobi Hospital. Subjects and method: Medical records of randomly selected road trauma patients who presented at The Accident Centre between 1st July 1997 and 31st August 1998 were analysed. Results: The mean age was 32 years with a peak incidence in the 21-30 year age group. Males comprised 63.1 % of the injured. The predominant category of the road user injured was the vehicle occupant (70% ). Pedestrians only constituted 21.3%. Major city roads or highways were the commonest scenes of injury (38.3%). Most of the responsible vehicles were small personal cars (65.8%). The public service minibuses (popularly known as matatu) caused 20% of the injuries. Most of the injuries were mild and transport of the injured to hospital was uniformly haphazard. A quarter of the injuries were severe enough to warrant admission. Trauma documentation was poor with less than 30% accuracy in most parameters. Conclusion: The pre-hospital and initial care of the injured is not systematized. The study calls for re-orientation of trauma care departments to the care of the injured.