Author(s)

Mahamat Yannick Ekani Boukar^1*, Nana Theophile Chunteng^1,2, Freddy Bombah³, Georges Bwelle⁴, Cyrille Chopkeng³, Guy Aristide Bang⁴, Eric Patrick Savom⁴, Divine Mokake¹, Pius Fokam¹, Alain Chichom¹, Arthur Essomba⁴, Marcellin Ngowe³, Maurice Aurelien Sosso⁴

¹Department of Surgery, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon.
²Surgery Unit, Limbe Regional Hospital, Limbe, Cameroon.
³Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.
⁴Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaounde 1, Yaounde, Cameroon.

Background: Traumatic injuries constitute a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide with a global burden that is on the rise. The aim of this study is to analyse preliminary data of the Limbe trauma registry, to describe the injury patterns and determine the outcome of care of the injured who were treated in the emergency department of the regional hospital Limbe in Cameroon. Methodology: This was a descriptive secondary analysis of prospective data collected on injury at Limbe Regional Hospital in two years, between October 2008 and October 2010. All cases of injury presenting to the emergency department of Limbe Regional Hospital were included in a prospective trauma registry. Data was collected with a pre-tested data entry form and included the age, sex, mechanism of injury, delay before arrival to hospital, body part injured, description of lesions and outcome at the emergency. Descriptive analyses were done using STATA 14. Comparisons between groups were evaluated using Chi-squared test or Kruskal-Wallis and p-values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 2400 cases of injury were recorded during the study period with more males (68%) than females. The ages ranged from 0 to 90 years with a peak between 20 to 39 years. Road traffic crash was the most common cause of injury representing 60.81% of the population (n = 1434); other causes were burns, falls, domestic injuries, assaults, and labour accidents. The accidents mostly involved motor cycle alone (42.03%). Concerning the outcome of care at the emergency department, 88.73% (n = 1260) were discharged. Conclusion: The burden of road traffic injuries in south west Cameroon is high. Motorcycles are mostly involved alone or with pedestrians and/or cars.

Traumatic Injuries, Limbe Regional Hospital, Cameroon

Boukar, M. , Chunteng, N. , Bombah, F. , Bwelle, G. , Chopkeng, C. , Bang, G. , Savom, E. , Mokake, D. , Fokam, P. , Chichom, A. , Essomba, A. , Ngowe, M. and Sosso, M. (2022) Injury Patterns and Treatment Outcome of Road Traffic Crash Victims at the Emergency Department of the Regional Hospital Limbe, Cameroon. Surgical Science, 13, 174-182. doi: 10.4236/ss.2022.133022.