OBJECTIVETo analyze the characteristics of injuries between two types of Emergency Department (ED) in China.

METHODSWe selected 25 hospital EDs in the whole country as spots for investigation, and designed one special questionnaire to collect information, from 1st July, 2001 to 30th June, 2002.

RESULTSIn city hospitals (CIH), the proportion of injury to all diseases were 19.65%, and in country hospital (COH) it was 29.88%. The fatality rate of injuries was 1.29% in COH, which was higher than that of CIH's (P < 0.001). In COH, ambulance was more frequently used to treat injury patients than in CIH, but the average rescue time was not different. In cities, machinery was the leading cause (about 32.88%), but in country it was due to transpert (35.34%). Traffic accidents, suicide/homicide and unintentional drowning were the main causes of death. In CIH, the number of unintentional poisoning was almost twice as intentional, but in COH the patients due to poisoning suicide act were more than unintentional poisoning, with 2/3 of the poisoning causes were women. Patients due to chemical, drug and food poisoning accounted for 86.13% in CIH, while in COH the main causes were pesticidal, chemical and druggery (89.80%). In all poisons, pesticide was the leading cause for death.

CONCLUSIONIt's suggested that patients with injury be treated timely since the acute injury patients accounted for important part of ED's patients. The differences between CIH and COH were obvious, with better ability of treatment in CIH than in COH. More relevant measures were needed to improve the ability of acute treatment for injuries.