Epidemiology of blunt abdominal trauma in Gorgan- Iran (2001-05)

Trauma is the second most common cause of death regardless of age in Iran and the health system annually defrays a vast cost for trauma patients. The majority of cases comprise abdominal trauma. This study was performed to determine individual and pathologic characteristics of patients with blunt abdominal trauma in Gorgan – Iran. This descriptive and retrospective study was done on 239 patients with blunt abdominal trauma in 5 Azar hospital, Gorgan - Iran from March 2001 to March 2005. 197 (82.4%) of cases were male and 42 (17.6%) were female. The mean age of patients was 23.4 years. The mean of hospital stay was 8.8 days. The most common cause of blunt abdominal trauma was traffic injury. The most common damaged organs were spleen (49.4%) and liver (21.3%) respectivly. Mortality rate was 16.3%. The hypovolumic shock was the major cause of mortality. This study showed that epidemiology of trauma is similar to those in other regions of our country. Therefore, programming and attempts of governmental organizations are needed to prevent and decrease traffic accidents.