title: Surgical mortality in the emergency room.
abstract: We reviewed retrospectively 125 surgical deaths in the accident and emergency department of University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, a major health facility in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, between April 2000 and March 2003. Data were extracted from the casualty records. The male-to-female ratio was 2.8:1. The mean age was 36.5+16.9, with 84 being between 20 and 49 years. Road traffic deaths constituted the highest toll ( n=52). Head injury was the commonest primary cause of death ( n=37), while cardio respiratory arrest ( n=59) was the commonest secondary cause of death. The majority of patients died within 24 h. Surgical deaths constitute a significant load in emergency room deaths. Most of these are from road trauma, and efforts at prevention are advocated.
authors.affiliation: Division of Orthopaedics, Department of Surgery, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. aniekere@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Aniekan Udoh
authors.initials: AU
authors.lastname: Ekere
authors.forename: Bob Evans
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Yellowe
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Umune
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies