Study of Pattern of Injuries by Road Traffic Accident on National Highway-24

India has the highest number of road accidents in the world. Roughly 1.5lacs people die of RTA per year. Saraswathi Institute of Medical Sciences is located on NH-24. It is a busy National Highway in India that connects the National capital Delhi to Uttar Pradesh state capital Lucknow running 439 km in length.

To Study the Pattern and distribution of injuries in RTA patients admitted in our hospital. Use and abuse of safety restraint system. Effective plan to manage the RTA patients.

Prospective Study from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2010.

Department of General Surgery, Sarswathi Institute of Medical Sciences, Hapur, UP.

All RTA patients admitted in SIMS were included in study. Cases that were brought dead and who left against medical advice were excluded from study.

Total number of trauma victims were 1509. Total number patients due to RTA were 911. Rest due to industrial injuries, fall from height, alleged assault etc. Total number of patients in study group were 579. Most of the patients were in the age group between 20 to 39 years. Out of these 70 (12.1%)patients were females & 509 (87.9%) were males. 315 (54.4%) patients were transported to SIMS within 6 hours of injury. 439 (75.8%) patients were received first aid before reaching to hospital. Most commonly occurred injury was head injury in 397 (68.65%) patients. Mesentery was the most commonly involved organ in abdominal injury in 39 (40.63%) patients.

Causes of RTA are low driving standards, old poorly maintained vehicles, large number of pedestrians, animals sharing national highway etc. Injuries associated with RTA were usually multisystem. The prognosis was poor in patients who suffered more than one injury.