Epidemiology of Traumatic Brain Injury in Urmia, Iran

which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Dear Editor, Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality after myocardial infarction in the world with many complications in somatic, psychosocial and disabilities (1). Each year in the United States, around 50,000 people die after a TBI. This accounts for 1/3 of all injury deaths. In addition, 90,000 people experience lifelong disability associated with a TBI (2). The overall number of TBI cases has declined over the years following legislation as well as public education about preventive measures such as the use of helmets, the enforcement of passenger and child restraints, speed limits and tough drink driving penalties. Coupled with improvements in emergency medical evacuation, neurosurgical and intensive care, these changes have meant that more patients are surviving injuries that would have previously been fatal (3). The most frequent cause associated with both fatal and non-fatal brain injury is transport-related. It involves motor vehicles, bicycles , motorcycles and pedestrian-automobile accidents and accounts for around 50% of all accidents (4). The second most significant cause of TBI is falls, which accounts for 20% to 30% of all injuries, especially among the very young and the elderly. In many parts of the world, assault is fast becoming one of the leading causes of brain trauma, particularly in the lower socioeconomic groups and war-torn countries. Other significant causes include the use of firearms (around 12%) and sports or recreational related activities (5). The risk of TBI is highest in the 15-24-year-old age group and decreases in the midlife years, but rises again after 70 years. A second peak occurs in the elderly due to falls (4). We under took a population-based epidemiologic to study TBI in urban and rural areas in West Azarbaijan province in 2005-2006. In this retrospective study,we reviewed TBI-patients records in Motahhari hospital in Urmia during 2005 to 2006 years. The medical records based on the ICD items, TBI-related death based on the death certificate and demographic data were collected. From the total of 1796 hospitalized patients for TBI, 721 patients (40.1%) have acute TBI that 1392 (77.5%) of them were males. The maleratio to female was 3 to 1. Most of patients (395=54.8%) lived in Urmiaand remaining patients lived in Khoi (17.8%), Miandoab (13.3%) and Salmas (14.1%). The most common age group was 20-29 years (24.3%). The …