Epidemiology of severely and fatally injured patients in western part of Norway.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Analysis of the injury mechanism and characteristics of severely and fatally injured patients in the western part of Norway.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: We did a prospective registration of all severely injured patients hospitalized during a three-year period. The files of severely injured patients that died at scene or during transport were retrospectively retrieved from the Forensic Department. A total of 558 patients with an Injury Severity Score > 15 were included.
RESULTS: Four-hundred-forty-four men (79.6 %) and 114 women (20.4 %) with a median age of 36 and 51.5 years respectively were included. The proportion of female patients older than 80 years were 19.3 % compared to 5.6 % for men. A total of 215 (38.5 %) patients died and 149 (69.3 %) of these patients died on scene or during transport. The incidence of severely injured patients in Hordaland County was 30 per 100,000 inhabitants per year. The incidence was lowest among children below 5 years (7/100,000/year) and highest among persons older than 80 years (95/100,000/year). Men had a 3.8 times greater risk of getting seriously injured compared to women. Road traffic accidents were the cause of the injuries in 235 (42.1 %) patients and 35.8 % of these patients died. A total of 215 (38.5 %) patients were injured due to falls and 30.2 % of these patients died. Patients who had sustained falls were significantly older than patents with other injury mechanisms (p < 0.001, CI = 13.0-20.2). The proportion of patients with penetrating injuries was 7.3 %.
CONCLUSION: The incidence of severely injured patients was 30/100000/year. Men and elderly people had a higher risk of getting severely injured. Falls were the dominating injury mechanism among elderly.