{"pk":14768,"title":"Epidemiology of Patients with Head Injury at a Tertiary Hospital in Rwanda","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Introduction:\n Traumatic injuries disproportionately affect populations in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) where head injuries predominate. The Rwandan Ministry of Health (MOH) has dramatically improved access to emergency services by rebuilding its health infrastructure. The MOH has strengthened the nation’s acute emergency response by renovating emergency departments (ED), developing the field of emergency medicine as a specialty, and establishing a prehospital care service: Service d’Aide Medicale Urgente (SAMU). Despite the prevalence of traumatic injury in LMIC and the evolving emergency service in Rwanda, data regarding head trauma epidemiology is lacking.\nMethods:\n We conducted this retrospective cohort study at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (UTH-K) and used a linked prehospital database to investigate the demographics, mechanism, and degree of acute medical interventions amongst prehospital patients with head injury. \n \nResults:\n Of the 2,426 patients transported by SAMU during the study period, 1,669 were found to have traumatic injuries. Data from 945 prehospital patients were accrued, with 534 (56.5%) of these patients diagnosed with a head injury. The median age was 30 years, with most patients being male (80.3%). Motor vehicle collisions accounted for almost 78% of all head injuries. One in six head injuries were due to a pedestrian struck by a vehicle. Emergency department interventions included intubations (6.7%), intravenous fluids (2.4%), and oxygen administration (4.9%). Alcohol use was not evaluated or could not be confirmed in 81.3% of head injury cases. The median length of stay (LOS) in the ED was two days (interquartile range: 1,3). A total of 184 patients were admitted, with 13% requiring craniotomies; their median in-hospital care duration was 13 days.\n \nConclusion:\n In this cohort of Rwandan trauma patients, head injury was most prevalent amongst males and pedestrians. Alcohol use was not evaluated in the majority of patients.  These traumatic patterns were predominantly due to road traffic injury, suggesting that interventions addressing the prevention of this mechanism, and treatment of head injury, may be beneficial in the Rwandan setting.","language":"en","license":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0","short_name":"CC BY 4.0","text":"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\r\n\r\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"},"keywords":[{"word":"Emergency Medicine"},{"word":"Rwanda"},{"word":"EMS"},{"word":"head trauma"},{"word":"Epidemiology"}],"section":"International Medicine","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7z5588cn","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Naz","middle_name":"","last_name":"Karim","name_suffix":"","institution":"","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Lise","middle_name":"","last_name":"Mumporeze","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Rwanda, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Emergency Medicine, Kigali, Rwanda","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Vizir","middle_name":"J.P.","last_name":"Nsengimana","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Rwanda, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Emergency Medicine, Kigali, Rwanda","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Ashley","middle_name":"","last_name":"Gray","name_suffix":"","institution":"Warren Alpert School of Medicine, Brown University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Alexis","middle_name":"","last_name":"Kearney","name_suffix":"","institution":"Warren Alpert School of Medicine, Brown University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Adam","middle_name":"R.","last_name":"Aluisio","name_suffix":"","institution":"Warren Alpert School of Medicine, Brown University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Zeta","middle_name":"","last_name":"Mutabazi","name_suffix":"","institution":"University Teaching Hospital-Kigali (UTH-K), Department of Accident & Emergency Medicine, Kigali, Rwanda","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Janette","middle_name":"","last_name":"Baird","name_suffix":"","institution":"Warren Alpert School of Medicine, Brown University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Camille","middle_name":"M.","last_name":"Clancy","name_suffix":"","institution":"Warren Alpert School of Medicine, Brown University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Derek","middle_name":"","last_name":"Lubetkin","name_suffix":"","institution":"Warren Alpert School of Medicine, Brown University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Jeanne","middle_name":"D’Arc","last_name":"Nyinawankusi","name_suffix":"","institution":"Service d’Aide Médicale Urgente (SAMU), Rwanda Ministry of Health, Kigali Rwanda","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Jean Claude","middle_name":"","last_name":"Byiringiro","name_suffix":"","institution":"University Teaching Hospital-Kigali (UTH-K), Division of Clinical Education and Research, Kigali, Rwanda","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Adam","middle_name":"C.","last_name":"Levine","name_suffix":"","institution":"Warren Alpert School of Medicine, Brown University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Jean","middle_name":"Eric","last_name":"Uwitonze","name_suffix":"","institution":"Service d’Aide Médicale Urgente (SAMU), Rwanda Ministry of Health, Kigali Rwanda","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Menelas","middle_name":"","last_name":"Nkeshimana","name_suffix":"","institution":"University Teaching Hospital-Kigali (UTH-K), Department of Accident & Emergency Medicine, Kigali, Rwanda","department":"None"}],"date_submitted":"2020-12-06T00:12:30-08:00","date_accepted":"2020-12-06T00:12:30-08:00","date_published":"2021-09-16T15:03:46-07:00","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/westjem/article/14768/galley/7514/download/"}]}