Traumatic Brain Injury Deaths in Bauchi, Nigeria: A Single Center One-year Experience

Abstract

Introduction: Traumatic brain injury is one of the leading causes of hospital admissions with resulting morbidity and mortality. It has become a major health problem in our environment. Mortalities from TBI vary from 10-36 per 100,000 populations and 2% death rate has been reported. The aim of this study was to study the trend of traumatic brain injury deaths within one year in our hospital. Methodology: This was a retrospective study included all deaths from traumatic brain injuries recorded within a year (December 2021 –November 2022) at our facility. The exclusion criteria were deaths from TBI occurred outside our facility but were brought in dead. Results: Forty–two deaths were recorded over a year period following traumatic brain injury (TBI) where 1,045 patients were attended to on account of TBI. The mean age of those that died from TBI was 45±15 and male had more mortality than female with 3:1. Mortality was pronounced more in 4th and 5th decades of life representing 55% of all deaths. Conclusion: TBI related deaths occurred across all age groups and the maximum number of deaths occurred in 41-50 years with Road traffic accident as the leading causes of TBI related deaths. Road safety enforcement, provision of social infrastructure like good road and provision of well-equipped health facilities with neurosurgical services closer to rural communities will reduce the mortality rate from TBI.