ABSTRACT
Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics and the outcome of severe trauma of various ages in emergency department,to improve the therapeutic effect of emergency rescuing.Methods Two thousand and sixty nine patients of severe trauma were treated during a seven-year period from October 1997 to October 2004.The studied patients were divided into 5 groups:(1)adolescent group(Group A,＜13 years old,n=106);(2)juvenile group(Group B, 13-18 years old,n=128);(3)youth group(Group C,18-40 years old,n=1518);(4)middle age group(Group D, 40-60 years old,n=215);and(5)elderly group(Group E,＞60 years old,n=102).All the patients were evaluated with Injury Severity Score(ISS),and the result was≥16 in all of the studied patients.Results The incidence of severe trauma in male in all 5 groups was higher than that in female,and it was significantly higher in Group C,Group D and Group E when compared with that in the other groups(P＜0.01).Traffic accident was the leading cause of injury,and its incidence in Group A,Group B and Group D was higher than that in other groups(P＜0.01).However,injury caused by falling from high places was the second cause of injury,being significantly increased in Group A,while armed fighting and injury during work being significantly increased in Group B,Group C and Group D,slip fall injury being significantly increased in Group E(P＜0.01).Head injury was mainly found in Group A and Group E,extremities injury and/or spinal injury were increased markedly in Group B,Group C and Group D(P＜0.05),abdominal injury was significantly decreased in Group E(P＜0.001).The total mortality was 11.9%(246/2069).The mortality within 24 hours (20.6%,21/102)was significantly higher than that beyond 24 hours(7.8%,8/102)in Group E(P＜0.01).The time of staying in the emergency department differed significantly between the survived patients and those died in all 5 groups (P＜0.01).Conclusion The gender,the incidence and the characteristics of the injury causes and injury sites differed between severely injured patients of various ages.Mortality in the elderly is significantly increased following severe trauma. The idea of“golden one hour”and“platinum ten minutes”,measures of shortening the time of staying in the emergency clinic,early definite operation and damage control operation should be emphasized.