OBJECTIVETo analyze the epidemiological conditions and characteristics of inpatients with traffic trauma in order to provide objective data for basic research and clinical application of traffic trauma.

METHODSThe data of 2213 inpatients with traffic trauma admitted to Lihuili Hospital, Ningbo Medical Centre, Ningbo, China, from January 2003 to September 2005 were studied retrospectively. According to the transportation ways, the patients were divided into four groups: pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and automobilists. And the data of injured regions, combined injuries and causes of death were analyzed statistically.

RESULTSAmong the 2213 patients, there were 550 pedestrians (23.5%), 521 bicyclists (24.9%), 738 motorcyclists (33.3%), and 404 automobilists (18.3%). Male patients were more than female ones, with the ratio of male to female of 2.8:1. Single region injury was found in 1663 patients (75.15%) and multiple injuries in 550 patients (24.85%). In total, 2849 regions were injured. Fracture of extremities (53.3%) occurred most often, craniocerebral trauma (19.4%) next, then followed in turn by thoraco-abdominal visceral injury (6.56%), spine fracture (5.37%), fracture of ribs (4.88%), and pelvic fracture (4.18%). The percentage of multiple injuries (33.2%) was highest and the percentage of thoraco-abdominal injury (18.0%) was higher in motorcyclists. The percentages of craniocerebral trauma in pedestrians and bicyclists were 27.8% and 28.2%, respectively. The incidence of fracture of extremities in motorcyclists reached 73.8%, but with the lowest case-fatality ratio of 1.4%. The incidence of traffic accidents caused by motorcyclists themselves (32.8%) was highest. A total of 56 patients died, with the case-fatality ratio of 2.53%. Among the deaths, 47 died from craniocerebral injury, 6 from multiple fractures combined with hemorrhagic shock, 2 from combined injury in the thoraco-abdominal region, and 1 from cervical cord injury.

CONCLUSIONSNowadays, the patients with traffic trauma are mainly pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists, and they suffer generally from fracture of extremities and craniocerebral injury. The main cause of death is craniocerebral injury. Another characteristic of traffic trauma is that the ratio of multiple injuries is higher.