title: [Assessment of the management of polytrauma patients at Le Dantec Hospital, Dakar].
abstract: Traumatisms represent the first reason of death in people less than 40 years in the developed countries. In Senegal, with the growth of urbanization, road accidents are more and more frequent and mortality by polytrauma is raised. The aim of this study was to evaluate the management of polytrauma patients in our hospital and to determine factors of mortality. This prospective study was carried out from January to June 2000 at the surgical emergencies department and the intensive care unit in Le Dantec Teaching Hospital of Dakar. One hundred and six polytrauma patients were taken care of during the study period. The mean age of patients was 30 years. There were 85 men and 21 women. Circumstances of trauma were dominated by road accidents (74.5%) and in 77.4% of cases patients were evacuated without prehospital care. The mean delay from the accident to the arrival at emergencies was 8 hours. Half of the patients presented to the admission a clinical picture of circulatory failure; respiratory distress was also present among 50% of patients and 53.8% of patients had a serious head injury with a Glasgow coma scale lower than 8. The global mortality was 69.8% and 80.6% of these deaths were attributable to serious head injury. Management of trauma patients in Dakar could be improved by setting up a medical transport system and by the improvement of the technical means in the hospitals. These measures, in combination with the prevention of road accidents, will surely allow to reduce the number of accidents, polytrauma and deaths.
authors.affiliation: Service d'Anesthésie-Réanimation CHU Le Dantec Dakar. elisadiouf@yahoo.fr
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Diouf
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Beye
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Diop Ndoye
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kane
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Diouf
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Seydi
authors.forename: P I
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Ndiaye
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ka Sall
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009104:Multiple Trauma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012675:Senegal