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.
Matzopoulos
Richard G
RG
South African Medical Research Council, P.O Box 19070, Tygerberg 7505, South Africa. richard.matzopoulos@mrc.ac.za
Prinsloo
Megan
M
Butchart
Alexander
A
Peden
Margie M
MM
Lombard
Carl J
CJ
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