Injury in Kampala,Uganda: 6 years later

Background

Trauma remains a tremendous cause of morbidity and mortality in most countries. The objective of our study was to describe injury from trauma at the major referral hospital in Uganda over a 1-year period.

Methods

Trauma registry forms have been completed for all trauma patients seen between August 2004 and July 2005 at the casualty department of Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. We also obtained 2-week follow-up data, and we compared these data with 1998 data from the same institution.

Results

In all, 3778 patients were entered into the database, with complete data available for 93.5% of patients. Patients had a mean age of 26 (standard deviation SD] 12) years, and 75% of patients were male. The mean Kampala Trauma Score (KTS) was 9.1 (SD 1). We classified injuries as mild (82%; KTS 9–10), moderate (14%; KTS 7–8) and severe (4%; KTS ≤ 6). On arrival, 57% of patients were treated and sent home, 41.6% were admitted and 0.4% died in the casualty department. At 2-week follow-up, 85% were discharged, 12% were still in hospital and 2.7% had died. Causes of injury included road traffic collisions (50%), blunt force (15%), falls (10%), stab wounds (9%), animal bites (7%), burns (6%) and gunshot wounds (1%). Causes of mortality were road traffic collisions (61%), burns (15%), blunt trauma (8.6%), falls (6.5%), stabs/cuts (5.4%) and other (3.3%). Data from 1998 demonstrated a similar spectrum of injuries but with a mortality of 7.2%.

Conclusion

Road traffic collisions are the greatest cause of morbidity and mortality from injury in Kampala, Uganda. When comparing data from 1998 and 2005, the spectrum of injury remained similar, but mortality decreased from 7.2% to 2.7%.