Abstract

Background
Although trauma has been the major cause of death in korea, there are few reports describing the epidemiologic characteristics of trauma victims according to age-group. Thus, this study aimed to describe the epidemiologic characteristics of trauma victims visiting an urban emergency medical center in Korea. Method: This study was conducted with all trauma victims who visited the emergency departments of Asan Medical Center from April 11, 2005 to May 10, 2005. After the subjects were divided into three groups such as child (≤ 14 years old), adult(15-64 years old) and elderly(≥ 65 years old), the prehospital courses, injury mechanisms, injury severities and clinical results were compared. Result: Among total 5,927 patients who visited the emergency medical center, 896(15.1%) patients were trauma victims. Although child under the age of 15 comprised 28.7% of the total trauma victims, less severe injuries(injury severity score < 9) accounted for 97.7% of the cases. The hospitalization rate for injury among child was 21.5%. however, although elderly aged 65 comprised only 5.9% of the total trauma victims, more severe injuries(injury severity score ≥ 9) accounted for 30.2% of the cases. The hospitalization rate for injury among elderly was 56.4%. Conclusion: Patterns of injury and clinical results by age-group were considerably different. less evere and non-hospitalized injuries were more common in child than other age-groups. while severe and hospitalized injuries were common in elderly.

• Keywords: Epidemiology, Trauma, Age-group