|
|
Journal of The Korean Society of Emergency Medicine 2002;13(1): 39-48. |
| Epidemiology of Traumatic Accident Deaths |
| Gab Teug Kim, Seung Yup Hong |
| Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Chunan, Korea. gtkim@medigate.net |
|
|
|
|
|
| ABSTRACT |
PURPOSE:
Comparing the results of traffic accident deaths between ours and a previous study, we assessed the improvement in the emergency medical service system and the traumatic care system.
METHODS:
Three hundred twenty-one traumatic accident deaths occurring in Chunan and the nearby region between 1999 and 2000 were reviewed; data were obtained from paramedic trip reports, medical records, and radiological findings.
RESULTS:
One hundred fifty-eight (49%) deaths occurred in the prehospital setting. The remaining 163 (51%) patients were transported to the hospital. Of these, 89 (55%) died in the first 48 hours (acute), 26 (16%) within three to seven days (early) and 48 (29%) after seven days (late). Central nervous system injuries were the most frequent cause of death (57%), followed by exsanguination (25%) and organ failure (8%). Two distinct peaks of time were found on analysis: 50% of the patients died within the first 60 minutes, and 9% of the patients died at three to seven days after injury. The overall preventable death rate was 24%.
CONCLUSION:
Access to the prehospital emergency medical system was improved, and there was greater proportion of late deaths due to brain injury. We found the distribution to be a bimodal distribution. |
| Key words:
Trauma, Traffic accident deaths, Trauma epidemiology |
|
|
|
PDF Links
Full text via DOI 
Download Citation 
