Citation

Pang JM, Civil I, Ng A, Adams D, Koelmeyer T. Injury 2008; 39(1): 102-106.

Affiliation

Auckland City Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand. jia_min@email.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.injury.2007.05.022

PMID

17880967

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the classical trimodal distribution of trauma deaths is still applicable in a contemporary urban New Zealand trauma system. METHODS: All trauma deaths in the greater Auckland region between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2004 were identified and reviewed. Data was obtained from hospital trauma registries, coroner autopsy reports and police reports. RESULTS: There were 186 trauma deaths. The median age was 28.5 years and the median Injury Severity Score was 25. The predominant mechanisms of injury were hanging (36%), motor vehicle crashes (31.7%), falls (9.7%), pedestrian-vehicle injury (5.4%), stabbing (4.3%), motorcycle crashes (3.2%), and pedestrian-train injury (2.2%). Most deaths were from central nervous system injury (71.5%), haemorrhage (15.6%), and airway/ventilation compromise (3.8%). Multi-organ failure accounted for 1.6% of deaths. Most deaths occurred in the pre-hospital setting (80.6%) with a gradual decrease thereafter. CONCLUSION: There was a skew towards early deaths. The trimodal distribution of trauma deaths was not demonstrated in this group of patients.

Language: en