A review of chect trauma in the emergency departments at hospitals of a private hospital group in the KwaZulu-Natal from 01 January 2008 to 31 December 2010

• Main Author: Pukana, Aime Musakay
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10539/25427

A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Science in Emergency Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand. 18 December 2017. === 1. BACKGROUND AND SETTING The study is conducted in hospitals of a private hospital group in the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. The increasing number of chest injuries in hospitals has led to increased interest in this field and has led me to conduct this study in the province. Data was collected from clinical records via the national data bank of the private hospital group. 2. AIM This thesis describes chest trauma in the Emergency departments of hospitals of a private hospital group in the KwaZulu-Natal province from 01 January 2008 to 31 December 2010. 3. METHODS It is a retrospective cohort study with a total sample size of 238 patients in different Emergency Departments, retrieved from clinical data bank of a private hospital group. 12 4. RESULTS - People between the age of 20 years and 40 years are more affected by chest trauma. - Chest trauma is more common in the Black population compared to other racial groups. - Male sex has the highest occurrence rate in comparison to female sex. - April and December have been shown to be a high risk period. - Most of the chest injuries cases happened during week days. - Motor vehicle accidents represent the major cause of chest injury in this study followed by physical assault. - Most patients who arrived in the ED had an Injury Severity Score that was ranging from mild to moderate. - The majority of cases have been associated with a good prognosis. - There was a mortality rate of 6.7%. 5. CONCLUSION Chest trauma represents a public health concern that needs to be addressed by the government in consultation/collaboration with the various stakeholders. === LG2018