Publication:

An audit of trauma related mortality in Government Medical College, Jammu

Background Surgical audit is defined as a systematic, critical analysis of the quality of surgical care that is reviewed by peers against explicit criteria or recognized standards, and then used to further inform and improve surgical practice with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of care for patients. Aims and objectives were to study the profile of patients who died due to trauma and to identify factors involved in both pre-hospital and hospital care.

Methods This study was conducted in the department of surgery, GMC Jammu during over a period of one year. The profile of all traumatic deaths was studied to evaluate the various causes of trauma related mortality, age and sex relationship, mortality rate, prognostic indicators and also to identify factors involved in both pre-hospital and hospital care.

Results A total of 414 deaths occurred due to trauma. Out of these 317 patients were males and 97 patients were females comprising male to female ratio of 3.3:1. Road traffic accidents accounted for majority of the deaths (57%) followed by falls (35.5%), assaults (5.07%) and miscellaneous causes (2.43%). In children less than 15 years of age, traumatic deaths were more due to falls, whereas in adults it was more due to road traffic accidents. In our study there was steady rise of fatalities during weekend days with a peak on Saturday. Cranio-cerebral injuries were responsible for majority of the traumatic deaths (85.9%) followed by limb injuries including fractures (38.4%), thoracic injuries (27.7%), abdominal injuries (24.6%), pelvic injuries (20.7%) and spine injuries (14.2%).

Conclusions This study can be the impetus to motivate committed professionals in the trauma specialty to help in the organization of available facilities and to upgrade existing facilities for a better response to injury, which should not be different from other public health responses.