RESUMO
Background: trauma is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in developed and developing countries and it constitute a majority of combat casualties in military conflicts. Trauma registries are essential to assess and improve standards of trauma care in military health services. The aim of this study was to describe the first trauma registry in Iran Army Medical Centers over a period of five months
Materials and methods: from January to May 2000 in a prospective study, all trauma patients referred to all of the Iran Army Medical Centers in Tehran were put under study and the process of their treatment were carefully observed during the study period. Trained physicians at each of the five hospitals are responsible for collecting trauma registry information using srandardized data collecting form. Collected data were entered into a research darabase, designed for this study. The trauma registry database include data items in the general fields of pre-hospital events, emergency room care, operating room interventions and out comes
Results: During the study period, 130 victims of injuries were evaluated. The majority of patients were young men. Injuries were occurred more frequently in military personnel with low military rank and low educational degree. The most common mechanism of injury was: blunt material strikes [24.6%], pedestrians stuck by a motor vehicle [17.6%] and falls [16.9%]. The mean duration of injury occurrence to arrival to the hospital was [1.78 +I- 0.33 hours] and 62.3% of patients received pre-hospital emergency care. None of the patients were died and 18.5% were completely cured
Conclusion: the over all trauma mortality rate at our trauma registry was low however, the high rate of morbidity and disabilities indicate the need for preventive measures and educations in military personnel