Traumatic brain injuries among adults - a retrospective study

Abstract

Introduction. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is among the most severe types of trauma all over the Europe, involving multiple resources, complex and long-term treatment. Road accidents and falls are mention to be the leading causes of TBI. Relying among the countries with the highest mortality in the European Region, injuries in the Republic of Moldova are ranked on the fourth place among the main causes of death. Injury prevention is one of the areas of public health surveillance in the country. The aim of this study was to explore the particularities of TBI among adults in the Republic of Moldova. Material and methods. A retrospective study was conducted among adult patients with TBI at the Emergency Medicine Institute - a tertiary medical institution for emergency health care. It was applied a questionnaire, completed on the basis of medical records according to ICD10 codes. The collection period was August, 1 - October, 31, 2018. The data were uploading using the existing electronic data collection tool - Red Cap and analyzed trough Microsoft Excel. Data collection was performed by a resident neurosurgery and a scientific researcher. The ethics committee's approval has been obtained. Results. There have been identified 94 cases of TBI in adults aged between 18- 73 years old, of which 93, 6% male and 6, 4% female; most cases being in the age group 30-39 years old (24, 5%), followed by group of 60> years old (22, 3%) and group of 40-49 years old (19, 1%). In more than half of cases, injury appears in urban area, 28, 7% in group of 30-49 years old, of the remaining cases in the rural area, 12, 8% being among the elderly. Work related injury in only in 11, 7%. In 4/5of cases injury were unintentionally, in 16 % though assault/violence and in 1, 1%- intentional self- harm among the age group of 25-29 years old. The major cause of the intracranial injuries was through falls (46, 8%), the most affected group being elderly (13, 8%). On the second place there were road accidents (22, 3%) with the most cases in the age group of 30-39 years old (6, 4%), followed by assault/ violence (18, 1%) and struck by/ or against (12, 8%). More than 1/4 of the injury occurred in transport area, followed by home injury (22, 3%) with the most cases in elderly, industrial/ farm area (19, 1%), recreation area (10, 6%). Less than 1/2 of the cases were registered in August, between 20.00- 06.00 (39, 4%), 10.00-14.00 (26, 62%). Most requests for medical help were between hours 10.00-12.00 (18, 1%) and 14.00- 16.00 (17%). Conclusion. The obtained results have highlighted the major risk groups, gender, and environment, time of the day and major causes of traumatic brain injuries. This information could be useful for the hospital administration in managing the necessary resources, for conducting information campaigns and developing health education programs.