Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Abstract

A plethora of injuries present at any Accident and Emergency unit but the pattern of the injuries vary from region to region especially in ours with the increase in ethno-religiously motivated communal clashes and terrorist attacks. This study aims to determine the epidemiology and trend of injuries presenting to the Accident and Emergency Department of the Jos University Teaching Hospital with the possibility of developing injury surveillance initiatives in our centre and Nigeria as a whole. Injured patients consecutively presenting within the period February 2011 to January 2012 were prospectively recorded. A total of 720 injured patients presented aged between 8 months and 75 years (SD=+/-52.4) comprising 544 males and 176 females giving a male to female ratio of 3.1:1. Patients aged 20 to 29 years were in the majority (n=220, 30.6%) with peak incidences in the period of communal clashes. Injuries sustained from motorcycles were the highest (n=248, 34.4%). Others were 160 (22.2%) in other vehicular and pedestrian injuries, machete (n=128), gunshots (n=92), burns (n=36), bomb blast injuries (n=16), fall from heights (n=32) and miscellaneous (n=8). Injuries sustained in communal clashes and terrorist attacks accounted for 236 (32.8%) presentations. The commonest site of injury was the head (n=304, 42.2%). Relatives, passersby and law enforcement agencies brought patients to the hospital with times between injury and presentation ranging from 1 hour to 3 weeks. Forty (5.6%) patients were brought in dead. Measures should be instituted by our government in order to improve outcomes and ensuring a safer society for citizens.

Biography

Adeyi A. Adoga is a Fellow of the West African College of Surgeons and presently a Senior Lecturer and Consultant Otorhinolaryngologist, Head and Neck Surgeon with the University of Jos and the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Nigeria. He is a Senior Fellow of the Optical Head and Neck Diagnostic Society, University College London and a Fellow of the Salzburg Weill Connell Open Medical Institute (Otorhinolaryngology), Salzburg, Austria. He has published more than 30 papers in reputed journals and serving as an editorial board member of repute with OMICS Emergency Journal.