Experience with road traffic accident victims at The Nairobi Hospital

To evaluate the clinical and epidemiological data on automobile injuries and to assess the adequacy of road trauma documentation at the Nairobi Hospital. A retrospective descriptive study. The Accident and Emergency Centre of the Nairobi Hospital. Medical records of randomly selected road trauma patients who presented at The Accident Centre between 1st July 1997 and 31st August 1998 were analysed. 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. 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.