Pre-hospital Care Profile of Road Traffic Injury Victims Presenting to the Emergency Department of a Tertiary Care Centre in Kerala, a Cross-sectional Study

Management of trauma is a neglected field in developing nations.Road Traffic Injuries (RTI) cause around 1.35 million deaths worldwide annually according to the statistics of World Health Organization (WHO) and in India 150000 death per year. An overwhelming proportion of these deaths occur before patients even reach the hospital. Two third (60.7%) of the accident victims belonged to the age range of 15 to 44 years. This indicates that active and productive age people are the one affected by road traffic accidents related injuries in turn adding to higher economic loss to the country. Lack of medical attention is attributed to nearly 30 per cent of deaths at site and 80 per cent of the remaining patients died within an hour of injury (golden hour). Most of these deaths are due to airway management failure, respiratory failure or continuing hemorrhage that are preventable causes with appropriate prehospital and subsequent hospital emergency care. Mortality due to RTI is increasing, especially in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC). There is a lack of research on the effectiveness of pre-hospital care in India. Selection of appropriate strategies and correct policy-making in these conditions may lead to decreased rates of death due to RTI in several countries.This study aimed to describe the prehospital care of RTI victims presenting to the emergency department (ED) in Jubilee Mission Medical College and Research Institute, Thrissur.