Epidemiology of trauma deaths in an urban level-1 trauma center predominantly among African Americans--implications for prevention.

This is a retrospective review to determine demographics, presentation and injury characteristics of trauma deaths at Howard University Hospital over an 1-year period (1994-2005) and to make recommendations for education and prevention in the community based on our findings. Data was obtained from the Howard University Hospital trauma registry. From the study period 1994-2005, there was a total of 365 trauma deaths. The injuries sustained were mainly intentional, which accounted for almost 75% of cases--the majority of deaths being due to penetrating injuries. There was an almost two-fold increase in trauma deaths on Saturdays compared to the rest of the week. The demographics of our study population were similar to those reported in the trauma literature. These were younger patients and predominantly male. Unique to our population was the overwhelming predominance of African-American patients (90%). With these unique features, injury prevention would be better served focusing on social and community prevention and education rather than the usual methods of blunt-trauma prevention--e.g., pedestrian- and motor-vehicle-oriented policies, which may be more beneficial in other trauma systems.