Magnitude and patterns of injuries among patients in Gondar University Hospital, northwest Ethiopia: an institutional-based study

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that injuries constitute 16% of the global burden of disease. This translates into 5.8 million injury-related deaths annually, worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine the magnitude and pattern of injury in the Gondar University Hospital (GUH) in the year 2013. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in GUH from March to April 2013. All charts of injured patients who visited the hospital from January 1 to December 30, 2012 were included in this study. A total of 616 patients' charts were included in this study. Data were entered and cleaned using Epi Info and exported to Stata version 11 for analysis. Binary logistic regression was used, and odds ratios with 95% confidence interval were reported. Results: During the study period, a total of 84,254 patients visited the hospital, of whom 16,611 (19.7%) were surgical cases. Injury accounted for 25% of surgical emergency cases. Patients were predominantly young males (82%). Three in five (59.4%) of the injured patients were within the age range of 15-30 years. Approximately one in three, 187 (32.2%), and one in four, 141 (24.3%), of those injured patients were students and farmers, respectively. The injury mechanism for nearly half (48.9%) of students was assault, followed by 45.2% of road traffic accidents. Intentional injuries occurred among 291 (47.24%) cases, of whom 84.5% were males. Fracture (22.9%) and head injury (17.2%) were the leading outcomes of injuries. Severe injuries accounted for ~13% of all cases. Residence, physical nature of injury and place of work were found to be significantly associated with the outcome of injury. Conclusion and recommendation: The magnitude of injury in this hospital was found to be high when compared with other similar settings. Assault and road traffic accidents were the two common mechanisms of injury. Appropriate prevention strategies should be designed and implemented against assault and road traffic accidents. Keywords: road traffic accident, surgical department, University Hospital, Ethiopia