Injury in Kampala, Uganda: 6 years later

Trauma remains a tremendous cause of morbidity and mortality in most countries. The objective of our study was to describe injury from trauma at the major referral hospital in Uganda over a 1-year period.

Trauma registry forms have been completed for all trauma patients seen between August 2004 and July 2005 at the casualty department of Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. We also obtained 2-week follow-up data, and we compared these data with 1998 data from the same institution.

In all, 3778 patients were entered into the database, with complete data available for 93.5% of patients. Patients had a mean age of 26 (standard deviation [SD] 12) years, and 75% of patients were male. The mean Kampala Trauma Score (KTS) was 9.1 (SD 1). We classified injuries as mild (82%; KTS 9-10), moderate (14%; KTS 7-8) and severe (4%; KTS

Road traffic collisions are the greatest cause of morbidity and mortality from injury in Kampala, Uganda. When comparing data from 1998 and 2005, the spectrum of injury remained similar, but mortality decreased from 7.2% to 2.7%.