Abdominal trauma in a semi-urban tertiary health institution

Objective: There has been a global increase in the incidence of abdominal trauma in surgical patients. We conducted this study to evaluate the pattern of abdominal injuries, patient characteristics and the management outcome in our setting.Methods: It was a descriptive (combined retrospective and prospective) study of all patients with abdominal trauma admitted and managed at Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti between January 2013 and December 2016. Data on socio-demographics, clinical profile, investigations, treatments and outcome were entered into a spread sheet and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0.Results: A total of 2728 trauma patients presented during the study period. Of these, 68 (2.5%) suffered from abdominal injuries. Their ages ranged from 6 to 72 years (mean 30.3±13.2). Fifty-nine (86.8%) were males while 9 (13.2%) were females (M: F ratio = 6.6:1). Forty-nine (72.1%) sustained blunt trauma while 19 (27.9%) had penetrating injuries. Road traffic incident (RTI) (n=41; 60.3%) was the most common source of trauma, followed by assault: gunshot (n=9; 13.2%), and stab (n=7; 10.3%). Spleen (n=23; 33.8%) was the most common solid organ injured followed by the liver (n=7; 10.3%) while small bowel (n=8; 11.8%) was the most common hollow viscous injured. Forty-seven (69.1%) required operative intervention. Post-operative complication rate was 17% with wound infection (12.5%) predominating. The mortality rate was 4 (5.9%).Conclusion: RTI and assault are major causes of abdominal injury. Measures to reduce RTI, youth restiveness and criminal activities will stem the tide.