Pattern of road traffic accident cases in a Nigerian university teaching hospital between 1987 and 1990.

This retrospective study was undertaken to obtain recent information on the pattern of road traffic accidents (RTA) and the associated disabilities in Nigeria. We reviewed the medical records of RTA related cases recorded between 1987 and 1990 at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife. Over the 4-year period, 2667 cases of RTA were recorded and this constitutes 5.3% of the total medical and surgical emergencies seen at the hospital. Furthermore, RTA cases accounted for 8.1% (range = 1.3-29.30%) of the total medical and surgical emergency deaths. Only 353 (13.2%) of the total number of RTA cases required hospitalization. About 12.7% of the patients spent less than 2 days in the hospital while 24.6% of the patients were hospitalized for more than 2 months. The 20-40 years age group recorded the highest incidence of RTA requiring hospitalization and males were twice as prone to RTA as females. Pedestrian casualties accounted for 28.3% of the RTA cases. The majority (67.4%) of the hospitalized RTA patients sustained a fracture and 12.2% died during admission. Our findings if extrapolated to all the hospitals in Nigeria confirm the speculation that RTA is one of the leading causes of death in Nigeria.