Estimating the South African trauma caseload.
A survey of medical superintendents revealed that an estimated 1.5 million trauma cases presented to South Africa's 356 secondary and tertiary level hospitals in 1999. Injury rates for traffic, violence and other injuries showed considerable inter-provincial variation, with violence accounting for more than half of the trauma caseload. This type of survey is a simple low cost alternative for monitoring injury patterns and supplementing burden of disease and injury costing studies.
South African Medical Research Council, P.O Box 19070, Tygerberg 7505, South Africa. richard.matzopoulos@mrc.ac.za
Richard G
RG
Matzopoulos
Megan
M
Prinsloo
Alexander
A
Butchart
Margie M
MM
Peden
Carl J
CJ
Lombard
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006783:Hospitals, State; D006801:Humans; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D014754:Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology