Profile of injury cases before, during and after lockdown of COVID-19 pandemic: a hospital based study

Abstract

Background: Injuries show a significant burden of morbidity, disability and mortality throughout world, especially in lower-middle income nations. Injuries result from road traffic crashes, falls, burns, and acts of violence against oneself or others, among other causes. Road Traffic Accidents are especially dominant among injuries, which are unintentional. The lockdown has resulted in dramatic changes in service provision from emergency departments and hospitals. And the pattern of the injuries has differed because of different reasons being reduced mobility, isolation at home, boredom and so on. The aim of this study was to assess the type of injury cases reaching a tertiary care hospital in Bangalore before, during and after lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic and its profile. Methods: The data was collected from the hospital records of all inpatients of selected tertiary care hospitals. Results: Incidence of RTA and Assaults are observed to be high constituting 52.5% and 31.4% respectively. The change in trend of injuries indicated a dropdown in injury cases during lockdown and the increase of cases after lockdown relaxations. Conclusions: Road traffic accidents was the most common cause of injury observed in this study, with specifically 2-wheeled vehicles were most involved. The development of trauma registries all over the country containing minimum epidemiologically desired data is the need of the time for India. The data in the hospital records should be standardized and centralized.